Viator: By Your Side
by jin long
Summary: In the sequel to Requietum-A Journey Home, Taki battles with Mekki-maru's influence which now threatens to turn her into another Cervantes. Even with the aid of Mitsurugi, Sophitia and Cassandra, is it possible for Taki to fight and win for her sanity?
1. Viator Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I do not own Soul Calibur, Soul Edge, Taki, Mitsurugi, Sophitia or Cassandra. These all   
belong to NAMCO. Such a pity--they won't let me have them. Oh well. But this fanfic is mine.  
  
Viator: By Your Side  
The Sequel to Requietum:A Journey Home  
  
by jin long  
lycan11@yahoo.com  
  
Chapter 1  
  
It was nighttime in the southern reaches of the Ming empire, the place where the monsoon and the  
rains passed at the exact same months of the passing years. Here was a place distant from the  
relatively chaotic northern borders, quite free of invasions from the fearful barbarians known as  
the Yuan.  
  
In this place, rice was grown, owing to the fertile land and the monsoon rains. The fields spread as   
far as the eye could see. One could say it somehow had the idyllic nature commonly associated   
with the more rustic places of the world. In other words, it was a peaceful place, a place where  
one could hide away from the world and sink deep into the quiet atmosphere of the green fields.  
  
That quiet, however, was quickly shattered soon enough that night under a full moon.  
  
Taki crashed brutally into her workshop, the door splintering under the impact as she collided with  
it, coming to a stop as she slammed into the wall, knocking over a small shelf that had tools for  
carving wood.  
  
The demon-slaying kunoichi grunted as she rose to her feet to eye her attackers, five in all. Three  
male ninja and two kunoichi stared back at her, ready to beat her down yet again if she resisted.  
"So, we finally meet the one Toki mutters about night and day," said one, scratching his nose  
through his mask.  
  
"The famous Taki, wielder of Mekki-maru, slayer of Gel-o-fury," mused one kunoichi.   
  
Taki squinted her eyes, feeling groggy. Somehow these five Fuuma ninja had managed to conceal  
their presence from her, perhaps reining in the ki which now emanated all too strongly from their  
bodies. In any case they had escaped her senses and had ambushed her on her way back from  
delivering a repaired rake to one of the farmers here.   
  
They had also managed to poison her, although she knew very well that it was a substance not  
meant to kill her, but to aid in her capture by dulling her senses and making her want to sleep.  
These five, however, did not know that Taki was used to such poisons and that her body was  
quickly metabolizing whatever sleeping venom was in her blood.  
  
It seemed quite insane to keep on giving herself some doses of almost every poison the Fuuma  
ninja made, but Taki mentally patted herself on the back for doing so for some time. She could  
never be too sure, after all, of what any pursuers Toki sent after her would employ to give   
themselves the slightest advantage over her.  
  
Such amateurs, Taki thought, standing around as if they have all the time in the world to deal with  
me. Toki must be really desperate to take Mekki-maru if he had to resort to ninjas who thought  
she would be easy to drug and kill.  
  
Or capture, Taki noted.  
  
Seeing that she rose, one of the male ninja quickly slammed a roundhouse kick into her abdomen.  
Although Taki had managed to tense her stomach muscles in time to absorb the kick, she hadn't  
been able to tense them enough. It knocked the wind out of her as it connected painfully, every  
nerve in her body screaming out with pain.  
  
Taki crumpled to the floor, clutching at her abdomen with one hand.  
  
"Stop that," she heard one kunoichi say. "Master Toki wants her alive."  
  
The ninja who had kicked her grinned, if the tone of his voice was any indication. "Yeah, but  
Master Toki didn't say we couldn't rough her up a bit. I don't plan to end up like Geki did, you  
know." He coughed. "I heard he lost his arm going after her."  
  
Listening to them, Taki quickly scanned her workshop for a way to escape, or at least something  
she could use as a weapon that was within reach but easily concealed.  
  
Mekki-maru was not an option, as it was resting on a shelf a good distance from her right side,  
in a darkened corner of her workshop. Taki knew that she had speed, but she knew as well that   
she'd have to distract these five ninja if she was to get at Mekki-maru... or Rekki-maru, she  
remembered, which was in the same place.  
  
Finally, she spotted something she could use. It was the first thing she'd ever forged, a small  
woodcarving knife that was nonetheless as sharp as her ninja-to. The carver's tool couldn't kill  
demons, of course, but it could really be useful against humans, most especially if one knew   
exactly where to strike and could do so with surgical precision.  
  
Taki stretched out her arm, keeping an eye on the five ninjas as she grasped her carving knife  
and quickly hid it with her palm.  
  
"Hmph," snorted another. "Posing as a blacksmith and a wood-carver in this stupid Ming empire...  
I'd beat the hell out of her just for the trouble she gave us finding her."  
  
A fist smashed into Taki's face, cutting her lip and drawing blood. She remained silent, however,  
mentally sealing the pain away from her senses.  
  
She was becoming cognizant, finally.  
  
"That Mekki-maru thing's got to be around here," mused one kunoichi.  
  
"Let's see if I get her to tell me where," one male ninja, the one of medium build, Taki noted,  
remarked, grasping at Taki's smithing hammer. "A broken hand should do the trick. If there's   
anything to make a person scream, it's got to be broken bones."  
  
Another male ninja took a handful of Taki's midnight ebony hair and raised her head up roughly.  
"I guess you can tell that you'd better start talking." The ninja sneered, but Taki's face didn't  
show any emotion at all. "Toki told us that there's nothing you don't love more than smithing  
or basically just making things with your hands," he said.  
  
Taki shot a glance at the ninja who had picked up her hammer. She knew where this little  
conversation was headed and what would happen to her. She pushed the urge to act all  
too rashly back into the recesses of her mind. Timing was everything, she knew.  
  
"Wouldn't it be a pity if your precious hands somehow got mangled?" the heavily-built male ninja  
finished, jerking at her hair violently.  
  
Good. He was so vulnerable, Taki thought. He hadn't realized that she had full control of herself  
and could easily move whichever part of her body she wanted to. The inner part of the male   
ninja's arm was exposed, the soft flesh easily cut by a knife that cut through wood.   
  
Now was her chance.  
  
With a slight flash of steel the heavily built ninja bellowed, letting go of her hair as he fell back,  
his forearm spurting blood like there was no tomorrow. The little woodcarving knife was razor  
sharp, and it had slit open the heavily-built ninja's forearm. It was such a deep wound that it  
was even possible for all present to see bone.  
  
Taki did not pause, attacking the only target between her and her ninja-to, the ninja who held her  
smithing hammer. He yelled, raising the hammer to strike her, but Taki blocked the motion of his  
arms and sank the carving knife into one of his eyes. With a sucessive motion, Taki slammed   
her palm at the base of her carving knife's handle, sinking it in deeper into the ninja's eye.  
  
The ninja cried out with pain, his grip on Taki's hammer loosening as he reflexively grabbed at his   
eye. Taki caught the hammer and with an angry yell slammed it brutally against his jaw, rewarded   
quite audibly by the sound of breaking bone.  
  
The ninja stumbled back, unable to even scream in agony as he grabbed at his mangled jaw.  
Taki quickly closed in on him and swung the hammer at the side of his knee. This time she heard   
an audible pop that indicated a dislocation of the ninja's knee. Her attacker collapsed to the floor,   
grunting in all too obvious pain.  
  
She wasn't going to be captured. She wasn't going to die here. She was never, ever going back  
to Toki.... These thoughts crossed Taki's mind as she dove towards the stand for her ninja-to,  
desperately reaching for one blade of the two there. Any blade would do, as long as she could  
drive these ninja off with it and gain time to escape with both ninja-to she owned.  
  
Her hand grasped Mekki-maru's handle. She could control this one, it was all right, Taki thought.   
Just as long as she had either Rekki-maru or Mekki-maru, everything would be alright and she   
would get out of here just fine without having to defend herself more than necessary.  
  
Taki drew the cursed blade.  
  
The moment she did, a sensation of pure and absolute rage overwhelmed her.  
  
Taki felt it acting on her emotions, acting on every frustration she'd had and endured these past  
eight years. It became very tempting to give in to it, to give total catharsis to just about every  
emotion of rage, sadness and frustration.  
  
She'd thought that she'd managed to gain some great degree of control over Mekki-maru, over  
the madness it would induce in her.  
  
She thought that all her training to control it had been enough.  
  
But Taki now realized that she was very wrong.  
  
With a scream of pure fury Taki attacked the ninjas she hadn't yet subdued. She began to lose  
herself under the spell and promises Mekki-maru seemed to give her. The evil influence of the  
sword flooded her senses and all control she had of herself vanished. All that remained was   
a strong sense of bloodlust, a desire to maim and utterly destroy.  
  
Taki wasn't sure of what happened next, only that three words echoed in her mind before she  
felt the sticky warmth of blood on her skin.  
  
Survive...  
  
Death...  
  
Kill...  
  
Everything after these three words came in fuzzy snippets, almost like visions or even dreams.  
Taki was no longer sure of what was real or what wasn't. It was all too confusing for her senses.  
All that seemed to remain was Mekki-maru in her hands.  
  
And screaming, screams of terror and pain. She felt more blood on her hands and felt Mekki-maru  
cut into someone, rending flesh, cloth and bone. And screaming... just screaming... She could hear  
herself screaming in unadulterated rage, and yet she could not feel the yell itself.  
  
Another scream, not her own, met her ears. She didn't care... She didn't care... They should die.  
They should die for ending the peace she had gained, the tranquil after all these years. They  
should pay... If she couldn't live, if she couldn't be alive, why should they live?  
  
Why should they live the way they wanted if she could not? Why should they even breathe the  
same air she did? Why should they even exist? Why should she care about them? Why should  
she even be decent towards them? Why... why...  
  
Why?!  
  
Taki sank Mekki-maru into yet another victim, smiling at the terrified cry that only metal severing  
flesh over and over could elicit. She was enjoying this.   
  
No! This isn't me! This isn't me... The demon-slaying kunoichi closed her eyes, fighting a different  
foe. What's going on... what... who... Mekki-maru... demons... darkness... what...  
  
Was this blood that was coating her face?   
  
Was this her blood or someone else's that she could taste?   
  
Who had she cut down?   
  
What had happened?  
  
Taki began breathing hard as she fought against Mekki-maru's influence, fought to calm her rage  
and her survival instinct. She had to know what happened. She had to... had to fight Mekki-maru's  
influence. She couldn't give in and turn into those who were her prey. She couldn't... couldn't...  
  
"Hhhh...ahhh.....gghhhh...." Taki closed her eyes, gritting her teeth from the effort of trying to   
break Mekki-maru's spell. "Hhhhnnhh!"  
  
Gradually her senses began to return to reality. The demon-slaying kunoichi found herself bent  
over Mekki-maru, clutching at the sword tightly as she pressed down on it. Taki raised her head  
and opened her eyes, gasping for breath as she felt the evil sword lose its grasp on her. Sweat  
cloaked her brow and her hair had come undone of the ponytail she usually bound it in.  
  
Inadvertedly, Taki looked down.  
  
She looked straight into the horror-stricken eyes of the only male ninja she did not recall attacking.  
He lay beneath her, his mouth moving as if to scream, but all that came out of his mouth was a   
choked gurgle and a good amount of blood as he began to go into shock.  
  
The Mekki-maru-wielding kunoichi soon realized why.  
  
Mekki-maru was imbedded deep in his throat, so deep that the blade had been sunk in all the way  
up to the hilt. It pinned him to the floor, so far into his neck that it had actually imbedded itself in  
the floor of Taki's workshop. It had severed his windpipe, such that the male ninja was slowly   
asphyxiating to death, as the blade had unfortunately missed his jugular.  
  
Taki rose, pulling out Mekki-maru from the ninja's throat as she did. The fellow gurgled some more  
then went limp as he died.  
  
Breathing hard, Taki took a good look around her workshop.  
  
Her eyes went wide with horror.  
  
It was as if she had painted the whole place with the blood of her five adversaries. Blood now   
began to coagulate on the walls, on the floor, even on her anvil and some of her unfinished  
wood carvings.  
  
Toki's servants lay on her floor in varying degrees of evisceration. One kunoichi lay by the   
splintered door, her throat slashed open so wide it was a wonder her head was still attached to  
her shoulders. She was the least terrible-looking of the lot.  
  
The other kunoichi's head had rolled to just about where Taki's anvil was, the body more or less  
intact, which wasn't saying much as the flesh was riddled with terrible, gaping wounds that were  
deep enough to reveal bone, almost as if the kunoichi had been on a butcher's block.  
  
The ninja whose arm she had slashed open with her carving knife had his insides strewn all over  
her smithing tools. Chunks of flesh surrounded him, obviously his own, judging by the fact that  
a good number of his limbs were near bare and their bones visible.  
  
Finally, the ninja whose eye she had stabbed was all over the place, nearly all of his limbs   
dismembered from his torso. His remaining eye looked out at the world in pure, consuming terror,  
lifeless as it was.  
  
It was a scene she had seen only once in her life, when she had pursued a demon that had been  
butchering villagers for both fun and consumption. That such a scene was right in front of her  
right now, in her sanctuary of a workshop, made Taki want to puke badly. The scent of now-drying  
blood assailing her senses did not help any either.  
  
It was a complete bloodbath.  
  
"Oh, Kami-sama... what have I done...?" Taki struggled to make herself move and pick up   
Mekki-maru's sheath. Wiping the blade on her clothes, she slid the cursed blade back into its sheath  
with trembling hands and an audible click. The sword did not seem to object, exhibiting no energy  
whatsoever that would have stopped Taki from sealing it back in.   
  
Somehow, Mekki-maru had been calmed yet again by human blood.  
  
-------------------------------  
  
Taki breathed in deeply. Such power Mekki-maru had. There was definitely no way she would ever  
give it to Toki. If it had acted on her in such a manner and had turned her into what had   
mercilessly slaughtered five ninjas, who knew what would result if Toki got his hands on it.  
  
She'd thought of returning to Japan and going after Toki himself after discovering a shard of Soul  
Edge among the remains of one of the ninjas she'd killed. But she had reconsidered. It would have   
been suicide to do so, and it made more sense to go after the source of the evil sword.  
  
Now she was headed northwards, close to the center of the Ming empire. From there she could   
probably make her way across the vast desert to the west via the old Silk Road. Rumors had  
been circulating once more that Soul Edge still existed, and the source of such talk seemed to be  
the west yet again.  
  
She'd departed soon after killing the five ninjas at her workshop, taking only an extra set of   
clothes, her armor, Rekki-maru, Mekki-maru and the small woodcarving knife that had in part  
saved her life.  
  
Taki thought about Mekki-maru and how it had managed to overcome her control over it.   
  
Meditating on the question, she'd reached an answer. An answer that she should have realized  
so long ago, at least four years back.  
  
An answer she should have realized as she began to carve a figure from a block of pine wood  
the length from her wrist to the tip of her middle finger, the width half the breadth of her palm.  
She'd begun carving it four years back but had almost forgotten about it until she gathered her  
equipment for her departure.  
  
It was there, near her ninja-to in the corner of her workshop, not quite complete yet, as the body   
still had to be carved and the head was yet to have hair, but she recognized the face she had   
carved into it.  
  
Sophitia.  
  
It was that chord which Mekki-maru had struck to subvert her control over it. It had somehow   
discovered that she had much frustration over not being able to be with Sophitia and had  
taken advantage of that one chink in her mental armor.  
  
Mekki-maru had taken advantage of her sadness and anger over the circumstances keeping  
her from the young Greek she'd fallen for so long ago.   
  
Mekki-maru had also amplified her desire to survive the encounter, to not be taken to Toki, to   
not lose the deftness of her hands, but it all boiled down to the fact that she wanted to see   
Sophitia and be with Sophitia.  
  
Taki had closed her eyes and had decided to take the little figurine with her. Stuffing it into her  
pack, she had quickly left her workshop in the night, certainly under cover of darkness so as  
not to alert the village to her absence just yet. Or cause them to discover what had happened  
at her workshop.  
  
As she departed, Taki wondered about Sophitia once more and how she was. Had she been  
wed to the one she did not love? Had she any children by this person?   
  
Was she, at the very least, happy?  
  
Looking into the face of the wooden effigy of the Greek, Taki sighed quite audibly.  
  
After all these years, she still loved the young Greek.  
  
But again, the circumstances were at their worst. Taki had the overwhelming feeling that there  
was no way in hell or heaven that the situation would change and it would be possible to live  
a quiet life with the Greek she so loved.  
  
Taki could feel the sadness welling up yet again within herself as she traveled.  
  
----------------------  
  
to be continued... 


	2. Viator Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I do not own Soul Calibur, Soul Edge, Taki, Mitsurugi, Sophitia or Cassandra. These all   
belong to NAMCO. Such a pity--they won't let me have them. Oh well. But this fanfic is mine.  
  
Viator: By Your Side  
The Sequel to Requietum:A Journey Home  
  
by jin long  
lycan11@yahoo.com  
  
Chapter 2  
  
"You are just my wife and in this house it is *my* will that is absolute!"  
  
Sophitia gave her husband an anger-filled glance. She'd suspected his true nature often enough,  
as even the weapons he had forged for her second quest for Soul Edge seemed to capture his  
aura of neediness and possessiveness. And she had felt it as well, for the aura was that   
suffocating.  
  
She wondered how she could have let this man -- no, there were definitely men of honor and  
goodness -- this person even touch her and take her on her wedding night. How could such a   
person be the father of her two lovely children?  
  
The jealous and chavunistic nature of this person who wanted to control her absolutely could be  
seen in his eyes. He was a controlling type of person, and this had really become painfully obvious  
some time into the marriage.  
  
"You are nothing without me, woman! You are *nothing*!"  
  
That was the last straw.   
  
"I've *had* it with you!" Sophitia screamed in reply. "You think you're the gods' gift to women, that  
I am lucky to have you?!" The Greek woman snorted. "You can't keep the books, you can't run the   
shop and you can't even *read*!" She pointed a finger at him, shaking with rage. "You are lucky   
I keep you around to tie my boot laces!"  
  
"Don't you *dare* speak to me that way!" he shouted back at her. He slammed his fist on the table  
as if to shock her into subservience, failing miserably. "You are my wife! You obey only my will!"  
  
"Before I was your wife, I was my own person. And I *still* am!" Sophtia screamed.   
  
"You are nothing but a *woman*! You are worthless without a man, without *me*!"  
  
Her husband huffed and breathed in a shallow breath before continuing. "You're no servant of the  
gods! Would gods be so foolish as to give a task as important as the one you say they gave to you  
to a mere woman?!"  
  
He kicked the legs of table, slammed a chair into the ground then looked her in the eye with a   
stare Sophitia recalled seeing on children who were in the throes of a tantrum. In fact, this  
person in front of her was acting so immaturely, so childish.  
  
Not even her own children acted that way. Not even after being in brief contact with Soul Edge's  
shard.  
  
"And do you think anyone else would marry you, would love you? You are ugly, woman!" he yelled  
into her face. "With all those goddamned scars on your body.... Who are you to think you'll find  
another person who'll love you, huh?! You think you're so beautiful that you can have anything and  
anyone you want in Greece?  
  
"Think again, you stupid bitch! I'm the only one that could *ever* love you!"  
  
Sophitia slapped him on one of his cheeks with all the might she could muster. Perhaps it was  
because of the surprise of it or maybe Hephaestus himself manifested in Sophitia's body for one   
brief moment, but in any case the slap knocked her husband off his feet and he looked up at her,  
stunned.  
  
Sophitia was breathing hard, nearly crying with pure anger as she spoke. "You *never* loved me  
in the first place! The moment I show that I do indeed have my own mind and my own will you  
hurt me! You've even struck me, and more than once!  
  
"How dare you claim to love me, you son of a bitch?!"  
  
She breathed rapidly, trying to calm herself enough to speak. It was a difficult task, as just about  
every part of herself was welling up with rage. "And how dare you speak of love? You know  
*nothing* of love! All that matters in this world to you is yourself and yourself alone!  
  
"You don't even love yourself enough to love another person!" This was very true, and they both  
knew it.  
  
"And who does? Your precious wanderer?!" Her husband snorted. "Well guess what?! You'll never  
see your wanderer! If that person ever sets foot in Greece I'll kill him, you understand?! You are  
mine, woman, and mine alone!  
  
"Your thoughts should only be about me, and I am to be the only thing you should ever think or  
care about!"  
  
Sophitia gave her husband a look that would surely have immolated him had he at all been   
sensitive to murderous looks. Gathering her thoughts and restraining herself from doing him   
bodily harm, she spoke. Her voice was cold as the words came out of her mouth, succinct and   
brief. As soon as they had been said, she turned on her heel and walked out of the house.  
  
"My body may be trapped here with you, but you will *never* have my soul."  
  
--------------------------  
  
The shard of Soul Edge...  
  
Cassandra's disappearance...  
  
The theft of the Omega Sword and the Elk Shield...  
  
Soul Edge was back in the world and Cassandra had gone off in search of it. Sophitia realized this   
soon enough after regaining consciousness after the shock of the presence of Soul Edge's shard  
had been spent. And if Soul Edge was present again in the world, every place outside Greece was  
most certainly bound to be dangerous.  
  
There was no doubt in Sophitia's mind that she should go after her sister. Gods knew what could  
happen to Cassandra, and Sophitia could only hope that Cassandra would be as lucky as she was  
when she herself had ventured out for the first time from Greece.  
  
Her husband would never understand, and she didn't care for him to do so. She didn't care that  
he remained in his little world where he thought he was god and that she should devote herself  
only to him, never mind that her sister could be in danger or that she had her own will.  
  
She could understand why Cassandra had thought to take this quest upon herself. By all   
appearances, Sophitia knew, her present family looked perfect and it would seem to Cassandra  
that Sophitia should and would dedicate her life to her family.  
  
Sophitia glanced at the two children whose hands she held as they walked to the old temple of  
Hephaestus. Pyrrha was to her left, Patroklos to her right. Both siblings were silent, as if they   
perceived that they should not misbehave at this very moment. Witnessing the last fight  
between their mother and father may have also been the reason for their silence, Sophitia  
knew, and she was sorry that the children had been witness to it.  
  
Patroklos was the older sibling, Pyrrha's senior by about a year. Both took after their mother,  
many said, with their blonde hair and blue eyes. Noting their unsmiling and confused expressions,  
Sophitia looked at them and smiled reassuringly. These two angels were the love of her life in   
Greece, and she was taking them to the temple that they not go neglected while she pursued  
Cassandra.   
  
She did not trust her husband with either of them, nor her subservient mother or overbearing  
father. The temple would be the best place to put them while she was away, but really, she had   
been intending to do this for a very long time. It was a step towards her goal of leaving her   
bastard of a spouse.  
  
It was also because she feared that their contact with the cursed shard of Soul Edge, however   
brief, would affect them. She knew that Soul Edge preyed on one's weaknesses -- the nightmares  
the blades induced in her mind so long ago, when she had first set out, indicated such, trying to  
attack her in that one moment her faith in her gods lapsed.   
  
The fact that the children had been witness to her fight with their... other parent made her want to   
make sure that whatever trace of the shard's influence remained in her children was eliminated.  
Right now, apprenticing both of them to the smiths of Hephaestus seemed to be the right thing to  
do.  
  
While a young priest of Hephaestus attended to her children, Sophitia went to talk with a friend she  
had made over the years, the head priest of the shrine.  
  
He smiled knowingly at her presence. "So, the 'Emotional Goddess' returns once more. I knew not  
even marriage to a most unworthy smith --nay,-- person would keep you far from Hephaestus for   
long."  
  
Sophitia smiled gently at the old man's words. "It has been some time, yes, though I presume you  
know of my occasional visits here?"  
  
The old fellow nodded at her words. "And I know why. But let it rest. Come, there is a certain   
urgency to these matters of yours. Do not worry about Chaerephos," added the priest as he   
noticed her glance at the apprentice priest playing with her children. "He may be slow in the head,   
but he has a great heart and a gentle touch for living beings."  
  
The two of them walked further into the inner recesses of the temple. Sophitia slowed her own  
pace so as to keep the old priest at her side, for he shuffled along rather slowly. "I know you seek  
to pursue your sister and Soul Edge," the old man said softly, coughing afterwards. "Hephaestus  
may speak faintly these days but I still hear his words," he explained, glancing back at Pyrrha and  
Patroklos. "The presence of your children here... I do not understand."  
  
"I do not trust my husband or my family with them," Sophitia said. "And there is only pain for them  
to grow into at my husband's home with me." She placed her hands behind her back, looking  
around the temple. "I wish to apprentice both Patroklos and Pyrrha to you, wise Anethos," Sophitia  
finished.  
  
"You wish Pyrrha to be a smith of the god as well? That is most unusual."  
  
"I would have thought such, myself, were it not for my travels to lands beyond the borders of   
Greece," Sophitia answered, recalling Taki and half-smiling to herself. "This is the safest place for   
them while they are not grown and I am gone. If you would indulge me, gracious Anethos, I would  
be most grateful to you."  
  
Anethos laughed hoarsely. "No need to convince me, Sophitia. You are a heroine of Greece even  
if most do not know this to be so. It would be an honor to do so," he said softly, grinning in reply  
to her thankful smile.   
  
They paused in front of a statue of Hephaestus. It was the main effigy of the god in this temple,  
towering above all whose presence it graced, hammer at the ready to smith an imaginary blade.  
Sophitia looked up into the divine smith's face, a face wrought with determination and a frown of  
focus. Somehow, though many would not have thought so, this image of the god was comforting.  
  
"It is as if he watches over me when I am here," Sophitia mused out loud.  
  
"Many would not think so," Anethos replied with a grin. "Though as his servant, perhaps it seems  
reasonable that you would see him as such." He bent down, reaching under the altar where the  
Omega Sword and Elk Shield once lay.   
  
Running a wrinkled hand over the various intricate carvings, he pressed at one of them, which   
immediately caused the side of the altar to open with a slight grating sound. Reaching in, Anethos  
pulled out something wrapped and bound in leather, placing it on the altar.  
  
"I assume that you have returned for this as well," he said, running a hand over the object then  
unwrapping it to reveal the original Omega sword, the first sword Sophitia had ever used. Lifting it  
up, Anethos turned to Sophitia and presented her with it.  
  
Sophitia took her old blade in her hands, gripping it by the hilt as she marveled at its almost  
immaculate state. The blade still shone in the little light of dusk that entered the sanctum, as if to  
claim that it still had what it took to be a worthy weapon for a hero. It had not rusted all these   
years and still looked as it had when she had first gone after Soul Edge.  
  
When she had first met the one who had reforged the blade and had taken her heart, Sophitia  
remembered. Unconsciously, she ran a hand over her abdomen, slightly off center, absently   
tracing the scar of the worst wound the shards of Soul Edge had inflicted.  
  
"I can't believe this... After all these years..." Sophitia took a careful practice swing with it, smiling  
gently at the memories that it brought back, memories of adventure, freedom and the one she  
loved all this time. "It's... It feels as if it has been waiting for me as well," Sophitia said softly.  
  
Anethos smiled. "As does, I expect, the one who repaired this blade," he said, laughing as he   
noticed the blush that spread over Sophitia's cheeks in response to his words. T-Taki... Sophitia  
thought. Does she still.... long for me as well?  
  
Sophitia quickly spoke to end her blushing state and to concentrate on the matter at hand. "I   
thought that this had been stolen by my sister."  
  
The old man scratched the back of his head. "We are not so foolish so as to leave such a fine  
blade where all may see it. And this intrigues us as well," he added placing a palm under the   
blade and running a finger across its broad side. "Ah!" he cried, the sword nicking him slightly.   
"Still so sharp after all this time!"   
  
"It intrigues you?"  
  
"It is as if whoever repaired it managed to fully tap its divine source. Look," Anethos said, taking  
the blade from Sophitia and slashing with it. "It is sturdy and sharp enough to cut most other   
blades, but it is not as prone to breaking nor as inflexible as it was before. It is a near perfect   
weapon that surely only a god and a divinely inspired smith could have forged."  
  
Because Taki put her soul into repairing it, Sophitia knew. Because she cared about me that she  
wanted this sword to protect me always, as if she herself were by my side...  
  
Anethos handed it back to Sophitia, saying "If you should see the smith who repaired this, do ask if  
he would reveal his secrets to us. It would be most helpful versus the Ottomans. Here, a scabbard   
as well for the blade," he added, reaching under the altar. "And, if you follow me," he said, handing   
the scabbard to her, "I shall see to it that you get armor as well."  
  
------------------------  
  
Clad in new armor with her old sword and her new shield strapped firmly to her back, Sophitia  
began to descend the steps to the temple, headed towards a waiting horse that Anethos had  
ordered to be summoned for her. Gentle Chaerephos was by the horse, holding its reins while  
he cooed soothingly to steady the beast.  
  
Sophitia breathed in softly then exhaled, turning around for one last look at her children by   
Anethos' side before she left. Her little angels... she did not want to leave them but it was best  
that they remained in Greece while she searched for their aunt. It was for the best, Sophitia told  
herself. If she found her sister and destroyed Soul Edge once and for all, her children would surely  
be safe.  
  
Pyrrha and Patroklos, both holding either of Anethos' hands, looked at her in return. She could see  
the tears in Pyrrha's eyes while Patroklos forced himself not to cry, brushing tears that escaped  
him feverently with the back of his hands, obviously trying to be strong for both himself and his  
sister.  
  
Would she see them again, Sophitia wondered. Would she see them again?  
  
She averted he gaze to keep herself from crying as she descended the steps towards the horse.  
She had to be strong. She was their mother and she should not show them any weakness. But  
oh, by Hephaestus, she so did not wish to leave them.  
  
"Mother!"  
  
Sophitia spun around at the sound of two voices, both crying out that one word, and crouched as  
both her children rushed towards her, taking both in her arms as the siblings sobbed against her  
shoulder.  
  
Patroklos, eyes now brimming with unrestrained tears, spoke for himself and his sister. "Mother!  
We won't let you go! We don't want you to go! Please, mother, please!" The siblings clutched  
desperately at her arms, not wanting to let go. Sophitia closed her eyes, hugging them both  
tightly as she closed her eyes. "I must," she managed to say to them. "I must go. Please, let go   
of me."  
  
"NO!" Pyrrha yelled. "We've got to hold on to you, like auntie Cassadra said. We've got to hold on,  
otherwise you'll chase Soul Edge again, whatever it is."  
  
"Children..." Sophitia said softly.  
  
"Please, mother... don't leave us... please..."  
  
"We can live away from father! On our own! Just don't go..."  
  
Sophitia breathed in deeply, soon gently pushing them away. "I must go after your aunt. I must  
go after Soul Edge," she forced herself to say, difficult as it was. "The gods dictate it, Patroklos...  
Pyrrha..."  
  
She looked both of them in the eye, azure gazes meeting each other. "I promise... both of you...  
I promise that you will see me again, okay?" She placed gentle hands on both their heads,   
ruffling the siblings' blond hair tenderly. "You two just take care of each other and trust Anethos.  
You will see me again, I promise..."  
  
Sophitia looked at Pyrrha, continuing. "Take care of your brother. You know how clumsy he can  
sometimes get, right?" Pyrrha nodded, biting her lower lip to silence her sobs. "And Patroklos,  
watch over your sister, alright? She's younger than you and she's going to need her older brother,"  
Sophitia finished, looking at Partroklos, who nodded through his tears.  
  
Sophitia rose then mounted the saddle, taking the reins from Chaerephos. With one last look at  
her children, Sophitia waved goodbye then spurred the horse towards the sunset.  
  
Be strong, children... she mentally told them. Just like your mother...  
  
Behind her, Patroklos and Pyrrha watched as she rode off into the distance, averting their eyes  
only when their vision would no longer permit them to see their mother.  
  
------------------------------  
  
to be continued...  
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*jin long leans back on a computer chair*  
  
jin long:Boo-yah! I wonder what reaction this'll get out of some people...  
  
Taki (stretches): Not the right kind.  
  
jin long: yeah, well, I'd use stronger language here, but I'm being polite, so -- whatever.  
  
Sophitia: Well, Calibur University sure seemed to go well with the folks.  
  
jin long: that surprises me no end. heh, you can work within canon and twist it too.  
  
whatshisface:You! You're responsible for all these fanfics that change the canon pairings!  
  
jin long: yeah right. if you haven't been paying attention, you're in this one. and I didn't start this.  
Silvermoonlight *inspired* me, you dope.  
  
whatshisface: You made me into a fiend! You didn't even name me!  
  
jin long: well, you always struck me as a codependent, immature and needy.  
  
whatshisface:!!!!  
  
jin long: hey, I got an audience that wasn't even into shoujo-ai.   
  
*jin long grins*  
  
jin long: and it's not like Sophitia minds. right, Sophie?..... Sophie?  
  
*jin long turns around to see that Sophitia has practically grabbed and shoved Taki to the floor  
behind jin long's couch*  
*Taki's hands can be seen flailing about*  
*There's a lot of muffled moaning*  
  
jin long:Sophie! Stop that! That's my favorite couch!  
  
*Sophitia's head appears above the couch, as does Taki's*  
*It can be seen that she's embracing a slightly dazed but smiling Taki*  
  
Sophitia:Ooopsie! My bad. We were just *practicing* for your other humor fic!  
  
jin long: Get a room!  
  
Sophitia:Okay!  
  
jin long: Not mine!  
  
Sophitia:Aw!   
  
jin long: *sigh* Fine. I can afford to have that thing cleaned anyway.  
  
Sophitia *grins, turns to Taki*:Okay, now where were we...?  
  
Taki *still slightly dazed*:Are you sure you're just acting?  
  
Sophitia:What do you think? Hmmm?  
  
Taki: One fic with me and now you're like this?  
  
Sophitia *pouts*: You don't like it?  
  
Taki:I'm not complaining... *pulls Sophitia back down*  
  
*muffled noises again*  
  
whatshisname:Hey! I'm still here! jin long, you are going to pay!  
  
jin long: I guess you haven't met my fourth fave character in the Soul series.  
  
whatshisname: What's that supposed to mean?!  
  
jin long: Yo Siegfried!!! Get your ass over here!  
  
*Siegfried walks on set, with rabid groupies all over him*  
  
Siegfried *smiling*: Now, now, ladies, there's enough 'Bad Boy Ziggy' to go around.  
  
whatshisname *squeaky voice*: ....Siegfried....?  
  
jin long: Ziggy! *points at whatshisname* KILL!  
  
*Siegfried immediately turns into Nightmare, complete with the big-ass sword*  
  
Nightmare: No PRobLeM, BoSS.... HEheHehEheHEheH.....  
  
whatshisface *gulps*: EYAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!! *runs*  
  
Nightmare:It'S BRaiN-SplATterinG TimE!!! C'Mere YoU!!! *runs after whatshisface, brandishing Soul  
Edge*  
  
jin long *waves*: See you in "The Wounded", buddy boy! Or should I say, your grey matter!  
  
*suddenly regie27 warps in, all Akuma-of-Street-Fighter-fame-like*  
  
regie27: JiN LoooOOOOONNNGGGgggG!!!!  
  
jin long: Yipes! *Takes off like a bat outta hell*  
  
regie27: CoooOME BAAaaaaCK heeeEEEErrrE!!!! *gives chase*  
  
jin long: HELL NO!  
  
regie27: You've mind-scarred me for the last time! RRRRRAAARRRGGGGHHH!!!  
  
*jin long suddenly stops and turns into ---Evil Jin Long!*  
  
Evil Jin Long: RRRRAAAARRRGHHH!!! I'm the jin long with capital letters in my name!   
  
*Evil Jin Long points a threatenting finger at regie27*  
  
Evil Jin Long: You scarred my mind first! Feel my wrath!  
  
*Evil Jin Long and Akuma-of-Street-Fighter-fame-like regie27 battle it out ala Dragonball Z*  
  
*Meanwhile, Taki and Sophitia pause, looking up at Evil Jin Long and Akuma-of-Street-Fighter  
-fame-like regie27 throwing kamehamehas at each other*  
  
Sophitia: Shouldn't you seal Evil Jin Long back in again?  
  
Taki: Nah.  
  
Sophitia:Okay. Hey, I realized something. jin long's room is so in the clear right now.  
  
Taki: We are so screwed if jin long finds out.  
  
Sophitia: jin long's busy right now, and won't notice, you know.  
  
Taki:Naughty Greek...  
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my apologies to regie27! all in the name of good, semi-clean humor, so no flames! or mind scars!  
  
*RRRRRAAAAAAAAARRRRRRGGGGHHHHH!!!!!!!! I'm the jin long with capital letters in my name!* 


	3. Viator Chapter 3

Disclaimer: I do not own Soul Calibur, Soul Edge, Taki, Mitsurugi, Sophitia or Cassandra. These all   
belong to NAMCO. Such a pity--they won't let me have them. Oh well. But this fanfic is mine.  
  
Viator: By Your Side  
The Sequel to Requietum:A Journey Home  
  
by jin long  
lycan11@yahoo.com  
  
Chapter 3  
  
"Have you cowards no honor?!"  
  
Mitsurugi sucked for a moment on the intricately carved crimson pipe he owned before blowing   
a small cloud of smoke into the night sky. He idly watched it drift skyward, his thoughts drifiting  
back to the events that had led to travelling yet again with Taki.  
  
"Ganging up on a single man, how pathetic you are!"  
  
Mitsurugi yelled out a war cry as he swung his katana, Shishi-o, in a wide arc, easily cleaving   
through the flesh of one of his foes. Bone and flesh separated with the utmost ease, blood spurting  
out as if there were no tomorrow. The fellow screamed, his blood splashing onto one of the walls   
of the dark alleyway. He quickly blocked the attack of another assailant, slamming the butt of his   
sword into the man's chin.   
  
With a quick motion, Mitsurugi somersaulted into the air, coming down behind his second foe, his  
sword following his movement as it slashed into his foe's back. The man didn't even have time to  
cry out as he fell to the ground, the katana ripping right through his shoulder, spinal cord and hip.  
  
Without even breaking a sweat, Mitsurugi returned to a ready stance as the blood of his defeated  
enemies oozed out and soaked into the earth. The comrades of the dead men stared at him, wary  
and afraid. The mercenary swordsman took one deep breath, simply waiting for them to make  
their move, like a predator eyeing recalcitrant prey.  
  
From the corner of his eye, Mitsurugi could see the injured man that he was defending. His current  
foes had ambushed this man, and he would be dead had it not been for Mitsurugi's timely   
intervention. Shameless, Mitsurugi thought. The injured man was obviously in no shape to defend  
himself even before he'd been attacked.  
  
"I warn you! Next man who touches me or this wounded fellow dies!"  
  
The swordsman blew yet another cloud of smoke into the night sky. The assailants of the injured  
man, at least the ones that had not fallen to Shishi-o, had fled, cursing as they quickly ran from the  
scene. Mitsurugi had then been left to wonder exactly why they had assaulted the injured man   
in the first place.  
  
The injured man grabbed at Mitsurugi's chest plate, struggling to stand even though he brought up  
blood with every agonized cough. The mercenary had raised his arms to steady the man, catching  
him by his chest and shoulders. "Come. To doctor you go," Mitsurugi had said, hoping that the   
wounded fellow could at least understand his broken Ming speech. "Come."  
  
"No! Can't... No doctors!" The injured man breathed hard yet again, waving a weak hand to counter  
Mitsurugi's argument of "But.... You're hurt..."  
  
"Too risky! They might find me there... Can't... Not with this..." The wounded man struggled to   
reach into his robes. Bringing out his hand, Mitsurugi found the man's fingers firmly grasped around  
a small, palm-length shard. "Take this," the man said, lifting the shard to Mitsurugi.  
  
The mercenary looked at him oddly. What was with that shard, and why did this man seem to want  
to guard it so intently? In any case, wounds of another took priority over whatever his wishes were.  
"No... Can't..." Mitsurugi replied. He hefted the man up, intending to place him on his shoulders.   
"Forget it. You need doctor. Have to--"  
  
"No! This has to be kept safe! This is a shard of Soul Edge itself!"  
  
Soul Edge?  
  
That pathetic little shard, not even sharp enough to nick, was part of the great Soul Edge?  
  
Mitsurugi extinguished his pipe and rose to put it away in his saddlebag. As he placed the pipe   
inside, he glanced at the shard, took it in his fingers and felt along it briefly, feeling its dullness  
and eyeing its lack of luster. The little thing was already starting to exhibit miniscule signs of  
rust, obviously weakened by the elements.  
  
"How is possible? Soul Edge powerful... How could break?" He had asked the man, cursing his lack  
of finesse with the Ming language. Sometimes he wished Taki was with him -- she picked up on  
foreign languages so amazingly quickly.  
  
"It's Soul Edge!" the wounded man protested as he pushed himself off Mitsurugi while the   
mercenary took hold of the shard in his free hand. "I must go. Please... Keep it safe. It cannot   
fall into the wrong hands." With that, the man stumbled away into yet another dark alley, out of   
Mitsurugi's sight.  
  
Mitsurugi stared after the man, then at the metal fragment in his hand. Sheathing Shishi-o,   
Mitsurugi rolled the shard about in his hands. It resonated faintly with a certain energy, though  
it was too weak for him to tell what sort of energy it was, or even if it was the certain power  
Soul Edge had been rumored to hold.  
  
"How could this be Soul Edge? How could the sword have been shattered?" Mitsurugi whispered to   
himself, eyeing the shard. A sword of salvation, a blade of power -- how could it have been   
shattered? It didn't make any sense, and yet he was not one to doubt a dying man's word. Still,  
how?  
  
Maybe Taki could explain this to him. She'd had more experience with these sorts of things, and  
besides, she would know Soul Edge if she saw it. He recalled that Taki had been one of three   
people who had encountered Soul Edge when it was still in the hands of some dreaded pirate in  
Spain. If there was anyone who was sure to be a source of knowledge on the so-called "Sword  
of Salvation", it would have been Taki.  
  
Mitsurugi closed the saddlebag and went back to sitting by the fire. He looked beyond it intently,  
eyeing Taki busily carving something. He watched her deft movements, knowing that the same   
skills had whittled him his pipe. The kunoichi glanced at him momentarily, then resumed carving.  
  
She'd changed, he knew. There was a different look to her eyes lately, a look that he would have   
never thought to see on her.  
  
It was a look that betrayed a growing coldness, a manifesting apathy.  
  
He recalled the first time he'd met the kunoichi. Back then, she wasn't yet a demon-slaying ninja,  
just as he had not yet been a mercenary swordsman.   
  
"Help! Can anyone hear me?!"  
  
So much for a pleasant spring day spent training in kendo. Mitsurugi stared out of the deep pit at   
the blue sky. He'd tried to climb out, but had failed miserably. He had begun to feel as if the hole   
was closing in on him, and had begun to fear that he would be lost in the darkness, that he would   
never be found.  
  
It was certainly a terrifying situation for a nine-year old boy.  
  
"Please! Help!"  
  
Why oh why had he ventured into what was rumored to be ninja territory? And not just any ninja  
domain at that, but the home of the mysterious Fuuma. Mitsurugi cursed as much as a child could,  
knowing that it had been foolish to come here on a dare.  
  
"Hey!"  
  
Another kid appeared at the top of the pit, bending over to look at him, the person's mere presence  
a source of great comfort to him. It meant freedom, total escape from this prison. "Is there   
someone down there?" Mitsurugi heard the kid yell.  
  
"Yes! Can you help me?!" He couldn't see the kid's features, but a person was a person. He had  
little choice anyway.  
  
"Sure!" the kid, just about his age, he surmised, yelled. "Hang on, okay? I'm gonna get something  
you can use to climb out. Just wait for me!"  
  
Mitsurugi gulped, then forced himself to be calm. "O... Okay! Just hurry! Please!" he yelled back.  
  
Moments later, a bamboo pole slid into the hole, digging itself firmly into the earth under his feet.  
"Hey down there! Climb up!" he heard the kidd yell. "I've got a grip on it, 'kay? Just use your legs."  
Mitsurugi didn't need to be told twice. Grasping the bamboo pole in his hands and between his   
knees, he hefted himself up as quickly as he could.  
  
He heard the kid laugh as his head emerged from the hole and then he inched himself out the hole.  
Mitsurugi could see the kid more clearly now, and he noted the ebony hair bound into a ponytail   
and dark-brown eyes. Yes, the kid was definitely about his age, and not only that...  
  
"You're a GIRL?!" Mitsurugi exclaimed.  
  
The kid laughed. "Duh, genius!"  
  
"Oh man... this is so embarrassing!" Mitsurugi, glanced away, gritting his teeth and scratching his  
neck in a compromised matter. "I got saved by a girl!"  
  
"Hey!" the girl protested, arching an eyebrow and crossing her hands over her chest. Mitsurugi  
noticed that she had begun to pout. "I help you out and that is the thanks I get? How about I push  
you back into the hole and we see if you can get out?" he heard her threaten, though playfully.  
  
"Is that a threat?" Mitsurugi grinned. If this girl thought she could beat him, a student of a great   
swordsman, well she was wrong. He got into a ready stance, just in case. "Hey, was that a   
challenge?" he asked her again, adding "'Cause if it was, I'm not backing down! A swordsman   
never backs down!"  
  
The girl scratched her nape dismissively. "Oh, and what if it is? Whatcha gonna do about it?" she   
retorted, slippping into her own stance.  
  
"This!" Mitsurugi yelled, charging at her. "I'm not gonna get beat by a girl!"  
  
Seconds later, Mitsurugi was dazed and flat on his back with the girl straddling his waist and   
tweaking his nose. "How 'bout you say 'Thank you' now, sword boy?" he heard her giggle in   
triumph.  
  
At that age, Mitsurugi had already learned how to take defeat and as much as he didn't feel like it,  
he replied; "Aw... All right. Thanks for getting me out of there... what's your name anyway?"   
  
The swordsman smiled, lying down on a fur for sleeping with his hands behind his head, staring  
at the stars. Taki moved really fast back then when she'd managed to pin him, and now she showed  
no signs of slowing down at all in any part of her life at that. Mitsurugi smiled, scratching at the  
growing beard on his chin.   
  
What he remembered though, what struck him the most, in fact, were Taki's eyes. Her dark brown  
eyes betrayed an inherent playfulness about her, a sort of mischievous nature akin to that of a   
wolf pup.  
  
A wolf... Somehow, Mitsurugi thought, it seemed so apt to associate Taki with a wolf, especially a   
lone wolf.  
  
The kunoichi had never struck him as someone for whom settling down had ever been an option.  
He could never visualize her as being someone's wife -- really now, his best bud, being utterly  
submissive to someone? Mitsurugi also never thought of Taki the way he normally would about  
women. Somehow, he always thought of her as just his best friend, almost like a sister in fact.  
  
Except for one time.  
  
"And then that shtupid son of a bitch took my Chiharu from me! Bastard!"  
  
Mitsurugi slurred as he downed yet another bottle of sake, his cheeks heavy with an alcohol-  
induced blush. "Wouldja believe it, Taki?! My woman! Just cause the fatass has got the gold, her  
shtupid folks *hic!* give 'er ta 'im!" He staggered about his small cottage, depressed and totally  
drunk over losing the woman he loved. "Fuck! Thish ish shtupid! Drinkin' over some blasted...  
*hic*... nawwww..."  
  
"You suck!" Taki had replied, just as inebriated as he was, though laughing maniacally.  
  
"You suck too!" he had replied in earnest, placing a hand on a wall then sinking down into a sitting  
position. Cocking his head back, he drank down the rest of the sake in the bottle he was holding.  
"Chiharu loves me, dammit! Shtupid folks of hers should give a rat's ass!"  
  
He chucked the bottle at the wall opposite him, drunkenly watching it shatter. "There any left   
there?" Mitsurugi asked, pointing at the bottle Taki had in her hands. The ninja nodded, staggering  
towards him and also falling to a seated position beside him. "Fuck this, huh, Heishiro-kun?" he  
heard her say. "This ish... *hic*... pathetic.... fucking pathetic...." she continued, giving him the  
bottle, from which he immediately took a swig.  
  
"Yeah," Mitsurugi muttered. "Whole frigging life sucks. We suck." He handed her the bottle,   
continuing. "You kill your damn sister and I frickin' lose Chiharu. Fuck," he finished.  
  
"Yeah..." he heard Taki agree. "But I *hic* got you, don't I?" she added. "Eh? Eh?" she laughed,  
nudging him with her elbow.  
  
"Heheheh... Buddy!" Mitsurugi chuckled drunkenly, putting an arm around Taki's shoulders and  
playfully pulling her close. "That'sh right! I got you, huh, pal?"  
  
Taki replied by intoxicatedly kissing him.  
  
Mitsurugi found himself responding a little more eagerly than he thought he would, taking her in his  
arms and running his fingers all over her body. He deepened the kiss, his instincts taking over,  
making him realize that this was one beautiful woman he had in an embrace and he wanted her   
badly. Taki was one gorgeous woman, he thought, the alcohol clearing the thought that this was  
his best friend, like a sister even, from his mind.  
  
As Taki pushed him down and straddled his waist while stripping him, he could only reply "Damn,  
Ta-chan, you're fine..."  
  
Mitsurugi closed his eyes. Come the next day, Taki had left him to wake up alone and naked.  
Somehow, he still couldn't believe that he had slept with his best friend, because it was as if  
she had never been there. No trace at all of her remained, and that was how it had been until  
the stories of Soul Edge and the blade itself had begun to manifest. Until they had met again.  
  
They had met again, and it had been awkward for him. How the heck was he supposed to deal with  
having slept with his best friend, even in a drunken stupor? But she had that look to her, the   
expression on her face that seemed to say "So what?", as if nothing had ever happened between  
them that night.  
  
He asked her how she had been, to which he only got a curt "Look, I don't want to talk about   
myself right now, so just drop it. Drop it." out of her, and then an exasperated "Fine, I'm just   
dandy, Heishiro-kun. Just fine."  
  
Mitsurugi pressed her for more information until he saw her finally throw her hands into the air  
and exclaimed in resignation "I'm just fricking fine! My family is chasing me and trying to kill me,   
I think, I'm outcast from my clan, and I fell in love! There! You happy?!"  
  
"You fell in love? You?" he had exclaimed at the time. "You, the lone wolf?"  
  
"Yes!" she blurted out. "So goddamn foolish, and it's eating me up inside. All for a damn foreigner!"  
  
"You always did look at the Dutch with more than casual interest when they were on our shores,"   
he had replied.  
  
"This was a Greek. A lovely Greek, so pure, so... Hell, I don't know, so perfect!" Taki had run a   
hand through her hair in frustration. "Stupid! So damn stupid, investing my feelings in someone..."  
  
"You don't mean that," Mitsurugi recalled replying.  
  
"I do!"  
  
Mitsurugi had shaken his head. "Damn, you're just in the throes of goddamned heartbreak! Like I   
was," he had said. He punched her playfully on her shoulder. "Come on, Ta-chan, you're stronger   
than this! You're the heartbreaker --or so I've heard here and there-- not the brokenhearted!"  
  
"Maybe... Maybe... I just..." Taki had sighed. "I just didn't realize it would hurt this much. I knew  
it was a next to impossible relationship, and I thought I'd managed to prepare for the inevitable   
but... damn... Here I am, talking like some lovesick shoujo, and I'm not even drunk..."  
  
"So, tell me about this Greek of yours," he had asked, trying to at least get her to remember   
happier times, just as she had done when his heart had been shattered.   
  
"What is so special about this foreigner of yours?"  
  
And when they had met again, she had a ninja-to, a weapon fused with a shard of Soul Edge. She  
had been outside of Japan, just as he had. She seemed tired, kind of weary at the time he saw   
her again after their drunken lovemaking. Was this Soul Edge's doing, as she had said?   
  
Then there was that foreign girl, Sophitia, also a witness to Soul Edge. She had scars, barely visible  
but there, all over her body. Taki had explained to him that Sophitia shattered the lesser of the   
two Soul Edge blades and that the scars had been the result.  
  
He did not believe Taki then, until the day he got his own shard while in the Ming empire.  
  
And now, he was beginning to think about what others said about Soul Edge that he didn't pay   
great attetion to until now. They had said that Soul Edge created a bloodlust so strong in its  
wielder that after some time, the wielder was lost to the world and only the evil blade remained.  
  
Taki... you're so damn mysterious... always were... and now that you've got your hands on Soul   
Edge... I wonder, Mitsurugi thought. I wonder what's happening to you now that you're using a   
weapon fused with the shard of that mysterious sword. What with what you feel, and probably   
have been concealing these past few years, he mused.  
  
Is it Soul Edge's doing? You said it yourself, Taki, Mitsurugi thought, staring at the stars. Is this  
what a "Sword of Salvation" is doing to you? Though I have never believed you on this and will   
never admit that I am starting to suspect you are right, is this really Soul Edge's doing? Is  
Soul Edge changing you, he wondered.  
  
I want to find out who is correct, but the only person who can tell me is... is somehow disappearing  
... Dying, maybe, Mitsurugi realized, glancing at the kunoichi from the corner of his eye.  
  
You're becoming cold, Taki, even if you don't know it.  
  
You're becoming someone else.  
  
------------------------------------  
  
to be continued...   
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jin long:hmm, now that Evil Jin Long has been sealed in again, i'm kind of wondering about this   
chapter, probably the most rewritten chapter so far. hmm, must get the action started again,  
maybe in Eastern Europe?  
  
*FWWAAASSSSSHHHH!*  
  
Evil Jin Long:BWAHAHAHAHAAH!!! Let's put in a lot of violence! Yeah, baby, yeah!  
  
*FWAAAAASSSSSSHHHH!*  
  
jin long: damn my oldest history teacher for ever getting Evil Jin Long to surface....   
  
*Taki and Mitsurugi are seated outside jin long's room (RESTRICTED ACCESS, DAMMIT!) on jin  
long's favorite couch (augh! it's gonna take a while before I sit on that thing again!)*  
  
Taki: Bum!  
  
Mitsurugi:Linebacker!  
  
Taki:Drunkard!  
  
Mitsurugi:Quarterback!  
  
Taki:Bathrobe Junkie!  
  
Mitsurugi:Japanese Schoolgirl Reject!  
  
Taki:Huh?  
  
Mitsurugi:The socks, Taki, the socks.  
  
Taki:Oh, right! Haha! Your 3P costume sucks!  
  
Mitsurugi:Your 3P costume sucks too!  
  
Taki:You suck!  
  
Mitsurugi:You suck too!  
  
Taki:Bite me!  
  
Mitsurugi:Dude!  
  
*Mitsurugi and Taki high-five then laugh hysterically until a scream is heard*  
  
Sophitia:Eeeeeyyyyaaaaaaaah!!!!  
  
*Sophitia runs into the scene in full 3P costume*  
  
Sophitia:I'm a brunette! *sobs*  
  
Taki (a brunette): And what is wrong with that, may I ask?  
  
Sophitia:I'm supposed to be a blonde, dammit! The last time this ever happened was in Soul Edge!  
  
Taki:But you'd still be a natural blonde, even with your costume's freaky hair-dyeing process.  
  
Sophitia:You think so?  
  
Taki:Give me a sec and do what you did before we went into jin long's room the other time.  
  
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX  
XXXXXXXXXXX---CENSORED! CENSORED! CENSORED!---XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX  
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX  
  
Taki:Holy Kami! You ARE a natural brunette with that get-up!   
  
Sophitia:See?! *sobs*  
  
Taki:Now, now. even my 3P costume is weird. (seats Sophitia beside herself and embraces   
Sophitia)  
  
Mitsurugi (guffaws):Tight End!  
  
Taki (smirks):Spa victim!  
  
*Taki and Mitsurugi high-five and laugh*  
*Someone else comes in*  
  
Mitsurugi:Hey! It's Sophitia's little sis! How'd the audition for Wagner's "Gotterdamerung" go?  
  
Taki:Is it just me, or did you just go out with your Scandinavian friends?  
  
Mitsurugi:Find the Ring of the Nibelungs yet?  
  
Taki:Hey wait, isn't your boyfriend named Sigurd?  
  
Mitsurugi:Careful Taki! She might go nuts and take us to Valhalla!  
  
Taki:Or to Nifleheim!  
  
*Cassandra, in full 3P costume crosses her arms over her chest and looks sarcastically at the  
two orientals*  
  
Cassandra:Ha ha. Very funny, you two.  
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For more info, or if you don't get this joke, visit http://www.felixmcli.org/sc2-costumes.html for  
a clearer understanding of the preceding bunch of silly quips.  
  
jin long:WHO HAS BEEN IN MY ROOM?! DAGUMMIT! 


	4. Viator Chapter 4

Disclaimer: I do not own Soul Calibur, Soul Edge, Taki, Mitsurugi, Sophitia or Cassandra. These all   
belong to NAMCO. Such a pity--they won't let me have them. Oh well. But this fanfic is mine.  
  
Viator: By Your Side  
The Sequel to Requietum:A Journey Home  
  
by jin long  
lycan11@yahoo.com  
  
Chapter 4  
  
This was just not a good day to be beyond the borders of Greece.  
  
Cassandra breathed in deeply, eyeing the bandits before her, nervously gripping at her sword and  
shield. One bandit, she could probably defeat, two maybe so as well. But five? This was so not her  
day, the young Greek thought, backing up until her back met with a tree and the five bandits   
cornered her, grinning maliciously. Years of training intended as discipline under a harsh ex-hoplite  
were rendered useless at this very moment.  
  
"Damn," Cassandra muttered under her breath. How the heck had her older sister survived   
travelling alone outside Greece? How had Sophitia manage to wield this sword and shield with   
barely any training at all?  
  
Oh, right, she remembered sarcastically. The gods were with Sophitia all the time. The gods were  
*always* looking out for Sophitia's welfare. They always looked out only for Sophitia. Always, just  
always it had to be her sister that everyone cared about.   
  
Even herself. Cassandra cursed silently. Why had she bothered to take up Sophitia's sword and  
shield for her? Why had she worried so much when Sophitia had left for the second time to   
pursue this.... Soul Edge? Why had she even cried?   
  
Why had she cared?  
  
It was good riddance! Good riddance! The plague known as her older sister, that person to whom  
all things came so irritatingly easy, would have been gone!  
  
The sword and shield began to feel light in her hands as her anger began to rise. Sophitia, always   
Sophitia! Sophitia who was praised to the skies by her mother and father. Sophitia whom the gods   
favored! Sophitia who could do no wrong!  
  
Cassandra gritted her teeth. She'd show those gods! She'd show everyone!   
  
This was just not a good day.  
  
"I don't need gods!" Cassandra screamed in her mind.  
  
From the corner of her eye she saw one bandit come in close to her, just within striking range of  
her sword. She waited until he was well and truly within striking range before she lashed out, the  
bandit crying out and stumbling back as his blood fell on the forest floor, followed by his severed  
forearm.   
  
"You bitch!" the now one-armed bandit yelled, though he was lucky Cassandra didn't understand   
him. "You fucking bitch!"  
  
Cassandra growled, rushing at him and slashing, managing to rend his chest deep from his   
shoulder to his abdomen. The young Greek woman followed up her initial attack with a strike to his  
abdomen, drawing blood yet again. The target of her misdirected anger fell back, clutching at his  
stomach as he struggled to stand.  
  
A second bandit rushed in from her shield-hand side, but she was too quick for him and smashed  
her shield into his nose, breaking it. The bandit howled in pain, clutching at his nose, blood oozing  
out from between his fingers. Cassandra didn't stop there, slamming her foot into his knee,   
effectively dislocating the joint and causing the bandit to crumple to the ground.  
  
She was too slow to recover from the attack, however, and the hilt of a short sword met with her  
nape. Cassandra grunted, falling to her knees as he weapons clattered to the ground, then gasping   
for breath as one of the three remaining bandits immediately rammed his foot into her stomach.   
The young Greek clutched at her abdomen, almost feeling like throwing up right there and then.  
  
"I told you! She had a goddamn sword and shield on her, you idiot!" she heard one bandit yell at   
his comrades in very broken Greek. "Little fucking bitch would know how to use them, I said!" he   
yelled, and Cassandra felt his fist smack into her face, cutting her lip, disorienting her and knocking  
her down.   
  
"Well, make her pay for hurting our buddies then, if you're so goddamn upset over it!" the young  
Greek heard another bandit say, albeit not understanding the language it was said in.  
  
"Hell yeah!" replied the bandit who had been striking her, and Cassandra looked up to see the   
bandit cock his fist for yet another blow.  
  
"Omae wa, baka yaro da!"  
  
A hand caught the bandit's fist before it could even begin its descent, surprising both the bandit   
and Cassandra as it pulled back on the rogue's arm while its owner kicked the rogue down to the  
earth, making the bandit gasp with the suddeness of the blow.  
  
Cassandra watched as the bandit smacked with a very audible thud into the ground, knocking up  
earth and debris as the owner of the hand, now revealed to be a muscular oriental man on   
horseback, grinned with mixed disgust and amusement at the unfortunate bandit.  
  
The bandit's comrades were not dissuaded though, and one still rushed at the oriental swordsman,  
even if the asian had a very apparent advantage in mobility and height upon the horse. The   
mounted warrior drew his sword, scabbard and all, and in one quick motion simply smacked the   
bandit silly, knocking him away like a rag doll.  
  
"Che... aho da..." the Greek heard the oriental mutter as he replaced the sword and scabbard  
at his belt.   
  
A second oriental, this time a woman, came into view and eyed the scene in front of her. She   
seemed quite amused, then spoke to the oriental man in a language that Cassandra found   
impossible to decipher.   
  
It was obviously something funny though, as the mounted swordsman laughed then spoke in what   
seemed like a retort, looking over his shoulder and gesturing at the remaining bandit, who was   
bewildered as anything.  
  
The two orientals then eyed the last bandit, grinning diabolically. Cassandra watched as the only  
remaining bandit took the hint then ran as far and as fast as his feet would take him. She couldn't  
help but grin a little.   
  
Not so tough once you're up against more than one, are you, Cassandra thought, watching as the   
rest of the bandits - one with a smashed nose, one staggering with a hand clutching his stomach   
and one with a big bruise on his head - that were able to flee did.  
  
"Ne, You okay?"  
  
Cassandra looked up at the oriental woman, who had dismounted from her horse and had her hand  
extended towards the young Greek. "Y-you speak Greek?" the bewildered occidental girl said,   
taking the offered hand and being pulled to her feet. "How is it that you know Greek?" Cassandra   
asked, curious, since she'd never met someone outside Greece that could do so.  
  
"I travel a lot," the oriental woman answered. Then Cassandra saw the Asian woman grin   
sheepishly. "My apologies! Here we are saving your life and you don't even know our names!" she  
heard the oriental woman say in slightly accented Greek. "I'm Taki, and my companion over there  
is Mitsurugi. And you are?" Taki asked, motioning towards her.  
  
Cassandra wondered wether or not to answer. Everyone outside of Greece, most especially Asians  
like the Ottoman Turks, were barbarians to her mind. Unpredicatable barbarians, in fact, gods know  
what they would do once she answered.  
  
But then again, they did aid her, and besides, they did seem a nice pair. For barbarians, anyway.  
They still were kind of gruff in Cassandra's opinion.  
  
"Cassandra Alexandra," she finally said.  
  
At the mention of her family name, Cassandra noticed that Taki's eyes somehow lit up with a sort  
of recognition as the Japanese woman mumbled the name again. "Alexandra...? You're an   
Alexandra?" Taki asked.  
  
"Well, yes," Cassandra said. She began to wonder. Perhaps Taki had encountered her sister a long  
time ago? After all, gods knew where Sophitia ended up those days. "You seem to be familiar with  
my name, at least my surname. Have you met anyone before with the same family name?"   
Cassandra finally asked.  
  
Taki shrugged it off, though Cassandra noticed that the dimissal seemed half-hearted, and that   
the oriental named Mitsurugi had arched an eyebrow in response to Taki's answer. "Maybe. It's   
been years since I've last been around these parts," the ninja answered.   
  
Cassandra watched as a smile returned to the kunoichi's face. "Anyway, what's a young woman   
like yourself doing traveling these roads? And with these as well," Taki continued, holding up the   
Omega Sword and Elk Shield as if they were the lightest of things in the world.  
  
"I uh... I deal in antiquities... er, deliver them anyway," Cassandra lied, hoping Taki would not  
see through it. "This was going to a buyer in, er, Italy..." the young Greek trailed off.  
  
"Uh huh," she heard Taki mumble as the Japanese woman raised the sword to the light, looking   
it over with what seemed to Cassandra an experienced eye. What puzzled the Greek, however,  
was that the ninja also whispered an enigmatic "Not the same..." while eyeing the blade.  
  
"You have experience with swords?" Cassandra asked, and was surprised as Taki answered with a  
"Yes. I do a bit of smithing, here and there."  
  
How odd, Cassandra thought, a woman smith. Hephaestus granted the skill to women as well? But  
then again, Cassandra mused, Hephaestus had also sent a woman running around the barbarian  
world in search of a cursed artifact, a dark sword to be exact.  
  
Or rather, he had aided that woman, her sister. Cassandra crossed her arms over her chest. So  
much for the gods. She'd had to manage everything, take care of herself by herself all the way to  
the borders of this godforsaken barbarian land.  
  
"Here."  
  
The word snapped Cassandra out of her reverie and she decided to focus on the moment instead.  
Taking back then sheathing the Omega Sword, Cassandra looked briefly for her shield then   
strapped it to her back upon finding it.  
  
"Thank you for your help," she told the two orientals. "I must get going now, though. It's getting   
dark, and I had better get close to civilzation or at least an inn along the way."  
  
"Actually, kid," she heard Mitsurugi say, "we were thinking that maybe you should travel with us."  
  
Cassandra eyed him cautiously. "What makes you say that?"  
  
At this, Mitsurugi laughed, stopped only by a admonishing yet soft look from Taki. "You said it   
yourself. It's getting dark, and you need to get to an inn fast, right?" the swordsman asked in   
heavily accented Greek.   
  
Cassandra nodded. "Your point being?" she asked, though trying to be polite, funny as it was, to  
this.... barbarian.  
  
"Well, my pal and I just happen to be travelling on horseback," Mitsurugi continued, "and it looks  
like it's a long way out of this place." He scratched his nose, then smiled. "On foot, you'll probably  
never make it out before dusk is over, and who knows what may happen to a lone kid like you."  
  
"I can take care of myself, thank you very much," Cassandra said, although she knew that   
Mitsurugi did have a point. "And stop calling me 'kid'! I'm twenty-one years old, for crying out   
loud."  
  
"Sure.... kid!" Mitsurugi laughed, ordering the horse to turn then begin a slow trot. Cassandra   
listened then watched as the swordsman spoke to Taki in that language she couldn't understand   
yet again, then waited as Taki mounted her own horse.   
  
"Well, you coming?" Taki asked, offering Cassanda a hand as she made the horse go to the Greek's  
front. "We'll leave you at the next village we come to, if you like," Taki said. "But you'd better come  
with us for now. If how you handled those bandits is any indication, you're going to need some....  
aid getting to the closest village."  
  
Cassandra found herself agreeing with this foreigner's logic, then later in the saddle behind the   
asian woman, arms clasped tightly around Taki's waist as the Japanese woman urged the horse  
into a steady gallop.  
  
"So," she heard Taki say, "what do you think of us 'barbarians' now?"  
  
Cassandra was surprised. "You could tell that I was thinking that?"  
  
"I've met a lot of people on my way here that thought the same. You all had that same look."  
  
The Greek looked at the ground, embarrassed. "Oh. Well, sorry, then..."  
  
"Hey, no problem, kid."  
  
"Just please don't call me 'kid', Taki."  
  
------------------  
  
to be continued...  
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*Preview*  
  
Half-Assed Productions Presents  
The Fourth Fanfic by jin long  
  
Sophitia Alexandra  
  
BILL WILL  
Volume = Area x Height  
  
*Sophitia brandishes the Omega Sword like a katana. She is wearing a yellow and black outfit.*  
  
Sophitia:O-Range Wishi! You have a debt to settle with me! In blood!  
  
*In front of her is Taki, dressed all in white with her hair tied back. Taki holds Rekki-maru and  
Mekki-maru in her hands, still sheathed*  
  
Taki:Dumbass Caucasian bitch likes to play with goddamn Hoplite swords. *smirks*   
  
Sophitia:This is a Hephaestus' Hand-a sword.  
  
Taki:Fuck yeah?  
  
Sophitia:I defeated your personal bodyguard, No-no!  
  
*Elsewhere, totally bloody and covered in bruises, Mitsurugi sneezes.*  
  
Sophitia:And your personal army, the Nutty-99!  
  
*Elsewhere, totally wiped out, the Fuuma clan sneezes*  
  
Taki *scratches her head*:Yeah, I guess you fucking did.  
  
Sophitia:Now it's your turn!  
  
Taki:Well then, Black Samba, *draws Mekki-maru and Rekki-maru* En Guarde!  
  
*They fight. Taki manages to cut Sophitia's back*  
  
Sophitia:Owww! Heavens to Megatroid, that'll hurt for weeks!  
  
Taki:Not to mention the blood will be hell to wash out.  
  
Sophitia:Oh dear god! And this is my favorite outfit! You're going to pay!  
  
*They fight again. Sophitia manages to strike Taki's leg. Taki manages to hop away*   
  
Taki:Owww! Godfuckingdamnit! Blood is so hard to get out of white!  
  
Sophitia:Hah! We're even!  
  
Taki:Wait a minute, why are you fighting me again?  
  
Sophitia:Because you, Coppertone, Rewinder and Metalgearsolid snake, the Not-Good-For-You   
Vipah Killer Comrades, ruined my sister's wedding!  
  
Taki:What wedding?  
  
Sophitia:The one where the church looked like Swiss Cheese because of all the lawn darts you  
guys threw.  
  
Taki:Shit... THAT fricking Wedding!  
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BILL WILL (He owes me something!)  
Volume - Is-really-loud-right-now-turn-that-thing-off-dammit!  
Coming soon to Fanfiction.net 


	5. Viator Chapter 5

Disclaimer: I do not own Soul Calibur, Soul Edge, Taki, Mitsurugi, Sophitia or Cassandra. These all   
belong to NAMCO. Such a pity--they won't let me have them. Oh well. But this fanfic is mine.  
  
Viator: By Your Side  
The Sequel to Requietum:A Journey Home  
  
by jin long  
lycan11@yahoo.com  
  
Chapter 5  
  
It was not a peaceful sleep that took Taki two nights after she and Mitsurugi had met Cassandra.  
  
"Where... am I?"  
  
Taki opened her eyes to the azure hue of the sea and the drab gray and brown ruins of a ghost  
port. It felt as if she was floating, or was it the other way around? The images seemed to swirl  
about in front of her, almost wavy in appearance.  
  
"The.... that Spanish harbor.... I...." The kunoichi shook her head, trying to dispel the cobwebs.  
"That's right, this is where I found Soul Edge... Where I..." Taki took a tentative step forward, a  
hand on her forehead. Was this real? Taki found her senses betraying her once more, unsure if this  
was a dream, a vision or even reality.  
  
What scared her was how similar this feeling was to being possessed by Mekki-maru. Was it   
trying to take her over again?  
  
No... wait, she thought. Somehow, this was different. How exaclty, she did not know, but it was.  
  
"This can't be real..." We were... Heishiro-kun, Cassandra and I were on our way to... not   
Spain..." the ninja murmured to herself.  
  
"It is only as real as you allow it to be, I would think."  
  
Taki quickly turned towards the source of the words, the origin of a deep, coarse-sounding voice.  
On reflex her right hand reached behind her shoulder for Rekki-maru, which was absent from  
its usual place. "There's no need for that," laughed the voice. "After all, it was what had slain me  
a long time ago... Eight years, maybe?" Another laugh.  
  
"Who are you?" Taki said threateningly. It was impossible to detect whoever it was or even where  
he or she was. The voice seemed to echo around her and she could sense not even a smidgen  
of ki from whoever it was. "Stop this little game of yours and show yourself! What do you want?"  
  
"My.... apologies..." The dull thump of boots on the ground met Taki's ears, coming from her right.  
Taki turned, still ready to fight if need be, body tensed slightly and ready to spring at any moment.  
She breathed softly, focusing on the figure that slowly came into view from the darkness of the  
ghost port.  
  
It was a man, his eyes a feral yellow in the darkness. He was an imposing figure, much taller than  
most Japanese men, Taki noted, and seemingly competent in battle by the appearance of his  
well-muscled body and his strong stance. Indigo, almost purple hair fell to his shoulders, some  
covered by a black hat associated with the rogues of the sea.  
  
Taki recognized him as he finished emerging from the shadows. "You're the pirate who had Soul  
Edge."  
  
The pirate smiled and bowed towards her with a wave of his hand to the side in a mock gesture.   
"Cervantes de Leon, madam demon-slayer," he said. "I would prefer to be known as such between  
yourself and I. Cervantes will do," he finished, straightening up.  
  
"Why do you haunt me?" Taki asked, easing herself into a standing position with her arms crossed  
over her chest. "Did even Hell reject you? And how is it that you speak my language?"  
  
Cervantes laughed softly, or at least as softly as a captain who had slain his entire crew could.  
"I have been touched by Soul Edge, as have you, my dear." He placed his arms behind his back  
as he slowly paced around her, much like a tiger would while eyeing its prey, Taki thought.  
  
"And believe me, Soul Edge has been in the hands of many. It was only a simple matter for it to  
gain, shall we say, a world of knowledge?" Cervantes laughed at his joke, though Taki found it  
anything but amusing and remained silent. "In any case, I am simply given knowledge of how to  
speak in your tongue and you need not know exactly how. Suffice to say, it is Soul Edge's doing."  
  
Taki opened her mouth to speak, but the buccaneer cut her off as her began again. "You would ask  
what you are doing here, kunoichi?" Cervantes mused. "What could there possibly be for you in  
such a pathetic place as this phantom harbor? It is an easy question to answer."  
  
The pirate sneered slightly, looking at the ground briefly as he paced then looking up at her again.  
"Everything you could possibly want, demon-slayer, is what the answer is. Everything that you've  
ever desired and needed can become concrete," the corsair said.  
  
"In exchange for what?" Taki retorted. "I know what this is about, and I know what you're trying  
to do -- Soul Edge!"  
  
Cervantes raised a hand to his chest in a mock gesture of hurt. "Soul Edge? Hmm... hahah... You  
are a perceptive one, aren't you, kunoichi? I do admit that I have been called by that name  
lately, and you have addressed me as Mekki-maru also, although I would never succumb to simply   
being a blade, by any name."   
  
Cervantes chuckled then continued. "I happen to be so much more than that, of course."  
  
Taki arched an eyebrow in an inquisitive gesture. "Much more than a mere evil blade, you say?  
The way you say it, it would seem that you are an entity apart from the blade known as Soul   
Edge. Or are an entity that infests Soul Edge, at the very least." She raised a finger to her lips as   
she was wont to do while thinking, still keeping a cautious eye on Cervantes, ready to act should   
he show any signs of hostility.   
  
"You are... like those that are my prey, then..."  
  
"Correct! And yet you are still wrong." Cervantes laughed heartily. "I cannot be what I am without  
humanity itself."  
  
"What do you mean?"  
  
"Oh, I would think that you would realize such a thing from how you've lived, kunoichi," the corsair  
said. "Humanity is always but a hair's breadth away from the basest of instincts, the instincts I  
gain my power from."  
  
Cervantes put a thoughtful finger to his chin, then continued. "Humanity prides itself on the thought  
that it is above the common animal, wiser, more decent, capable of love and kindness and all  
that claptrap. But really," the pirate paused, eyeing Taki with amusement, "it is nothing more than  
foolish pride.  
  
"It is so easy to kill someone, of course. So easy to.... eliminate every obstacle in one's path   
towards one's desires. What stops a person from doing so? Ethics, morality, religion... the   
sort of lies spread by those who wish power and yet have none in truth."  
  
Taki squinted her eyes. "And power allows... no, gives those who wield it the right to ignore all  
the principles which you call empty mouthings of the impotent? That's ridiculous!" the kunoichi  
replied. "Where would humanity be if those were gone?"  
  
The corsair suddenly came up in front of her, his yellow eyes boring into her own with such   
intensity that Taki took a step back. "Oh really? The fact that they are there, that humans kill   
others over these so called ethics shows that these mouthings are empty husks devoid of any   
meaning.   
  
"These ethics are hypocritical at best. Said one, 'Thou shall not kill', and yet those that   
believe this creed slay many to make it the only ethic." Cervantes paced before her yet again,  
eyeing her.   
  
"And sometimes these ethics don't apply, even if humanity encounters itself in a slightly different   
form. You saw it yourself, in the guise of that girl you and your friend aided. Never mind if both of   
you helped her. You were still barbarians, beneath her."  
  
"So why bother with civility?" Cervantes asked Taki. "Why bother with petty little ethics that don't  
really matter? Why be concerned with what another feels?"  
  
Taki crossed her arms over her chest defensively. "Somehow, you fail to convince me, corsair. I'd  
expect such words from you, what with your twisted mind."  
  
Cervantes laughed. "Perhaps I should tell you of a boy. A child's story, if you will."  
  
The image of a child, about six years old, appeared between them. Taki noted that he looked   
scraggly, though he would certainly be handsome if only his dark hair and his face were clean.  
Cervantes approached the child, patting the boy roughly on the head.  
  
"Pathetic, isn't he?" the buccaneer asked the kunoichi. "Let me tell you about this weak little soul.  
  
"The boy was a farmer's son, a child from a small village in the area of the Mediterranean. He was   
happy, innocent and ignorant -- the lot of a peasant's son, perhaps. Such states cannot last, of   
course, and in his tenth year, every illusion fed to him by weak peasants was shattered.  
  
"Foreigners, dark as anything, came from the south. Oh there had been news of fighting, but  
the village of this boy paid no heed. Why would the fighting come to the village? There was nothing  
there, only farmers making a living off the soil. In doing nothing they sealed their own fate.  
  
"So the village fell to these invaders. And this little son of a bitch was made to watch as both his   
parents as well as his siblings were slain before his eyes."  
  
Cervantes tousled the boy's dark locks. "Pathetic, truly pathetic. And what became of this brat?  
Why, he staggered off to the nearest town he could. When he was there, what do you think became  
of him?  
  
"Nothing, that's what. Who in a city would give a job to an ignorant country boy? So pathetic he  
remained, and do you know why, kunoichi?  
  
"Because this hapless creature was weak. Surely mercy, kindness and goodwill would have   
mattered enough for people to perhaps help him? It was not so. If they themselves suffer no loss  
or are harmed not, people will do nothing. Only their own suffering ever matters to them. Never  
mind that the weak are left to die. There are others who have illusions of strength that are to   
follow.  
  
"So human kindness failed this weak boy. And if he could not rely on the illusionary kindness of   
strangers, why should he not take advantage of them? They were weak anyway, and the weak  
do not deserve anything, not even life, as the world had shown him.  
  
"Thus the boy changed. He robbed, he pillaged and he murdered for his own sake. If others were  
not concerned about his life, why should he be concerned about theirs?  
  
"But it wasn't enough. All could be easily taken away by someone stronger. So the boy wished for  
power, and power was what I granted him in exchange for a simple thing that really never   
mattered, and still does not.  
  
"I gave him power in return for his simple disposing of his petty morals, and he became the pirate   
whose form I now take. But then, you proved the stronger one when he faced you." Cervantes   
suddenly jerked his hand, whipping the boy's head around and breaking the child's neck. The boy   
crumpled to the ground in a heap, lifeless, with his head at an odd and gruesome angle to his neck.   
  
"There is no room for weaklings in the world. Only the strong need survive. And to be strong, one  
will need power.  
  
"And the only thing that means *anything* in this world is *power*!" Cervantes backed away from  
Taki, clenching his fist and raising it up in front of her. "Power, kunoichi, is all that matters.  
Power to make your own rules, power to make your world and power to do away with all that  
stand in your way!" bellowed the corsair. "I *am* power!  
  
"And I offer you that, kunoichi. I would give you that -- I could give you the whole world if you  
would but embrace this truth and dispose of your petty ethics and honor." Cervantes   
extended an open hand towards her. "Embrace what humanity truly is, what being human  
truly is. Realize that which truly will make you human -- power over your whole world!"  
  
"No!"  
  
Cervantes seemed taken aback. "You refuse?"  
  
"I refuse to give in to you!" Taki said sharply. "You offer power, you say, but at what cost? And  
I don't believe what you have argued about human nature. If people can love, if people can  
project themselves and realize that there are others in the world--"  
  
"Love? You mean the emotion that you feel for this Greek of yours? The emotion that constantly  
weakens you, that tortures you?" Cervantes laughed evilly, and Taki knew why. Somehow...   
somehow part of herself wanted to believe him, did in fact agree with him about power, about  
everything he had said.  
  
And the corsair, or at least that which had the image of the pirate knew that. It knew what   
buttons to push, what chord it had to strike. Taki wondered for a moment, doubted herself  
and her will for a moment.   
  
She was weakening, she knew. What it offered now was tempting, as she felt powerless as of  
late, unable to change the world or fate, it seemed. She had no family to turn to, for they were  
out for her capture and she was sure now, for her blood. She had her best friend, but their  
relationship had begun to suffer with their opposing views on Soul Edge, she knew.  
  
She could not even be with the one she loved, and that hurt most of all.  
  
Taki looked into the darkness, part of herself just wanting it to envelop her, wanting to escape.  
Yet she knew what price she would have to pay, and that was just about the only thing that  
was keeping her will strong.  
  
"I don't have to talk to you. I don't have to explain anything to you. Begone from me, whatever  
you are. We are finished here," Taki finally managed to say.  
  
"Huh, kunoichi. We should talk more about this, as you intrigue me." The corsair turned around,  
walking and fading away into the darkness. Before he completely disappeared, Cervantes peered  
over his shoulder at her, saying "You may have held out this long, but I know your weakness.   
Eventually you will realize that you will have to come back to me. And you will want to do so."  
  
Cervantes became one with the darkness. "Everyone does. It's only a matter of time."  
  
to be continued...  
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.  
jin long's notes:  
  
okay, japanese people are very conscious of hierarchy, and proper speech comes with that.  
Not to mention, proper addressing.  
  
for example, if Karakutaa A is meeting Paason B for the first time, the prefix "-san" is added to the  
person's last name, i.e. A-san for Karakutaa A or B-san for Paason B. Or, to illustrate more clearly,  
Taki meets Sophitia Alexandra for the first time. Assuming both know the proper decorum, Taki  
will address Sophitia as "Alexandra-san".  
  
now let's say Taki and Sophitia become close, akin to more or less the level of friends. Taki will  
address Sophitia probably as "Alexandra-chan". Note, however, that they aren't as close as could  
be for Taki to stop calling Sophitia by her family name.  
  
eventually, Taki and Sophitia become very, very intimate friends. At this point, it is all right for  
Taki to address Sophitia as "Sophitia" or "Sophitia-chan".  
  
In this fic, Taki and Mitsurugi are close, so Taki calls Mitsu "Heishiro-kun" (-kun for guys is like  
-chan) and Mitsu calls Taki "Ta-chan" 


	6. Viator Chapter 6

Disclaimer: I do not own Soul Calibur, Soul Edge, Taki, Mitsurugi, Sophitia, Cassandra or Raphael.   
These all belong to NAMCO. Such a pity--they won't let me have them. Oh well. But this fanfic is   
mine.  
  
Viator: By Your Side  
The Sequel to Requietum:A Journey Home  
  
by jin long  
lycan11@yahoo.com  
  
Chapter 6  
  
Sophitia rode into the busy town that was clearly the last of its kind before the long way to the  
borders of the Ottoman empire. The place was bustling with activity, and the answer as to why  
came to Sophitia as soon as she went further into the town. It was market day, and a bazaar  
was highly active, right smack in the middle of the town.  
  
No better place to get supplies, Sophitia thought, dismounting from her horse and eagerly walking  
down the street, browsing what the merchants had for sale as she kept her equine companion in  
tow. Gods knew how far she still had to go to find Cassandra. Sophitia paused to look over  
what one merchant had for sale.  
  
The Greek felt the tip of a blade against her ribs, not firm enough to draw blood, but not to be   
ignored either. The owner of the blade spoke evenly, in a deep and obviously masculine tone,   
though Sophitia couldn't understand for the life of her what he said. But she could guess as she   
slowly untied her coin purse from her belt and heard the thief snicker.  
  
"This is what you want, I suppose?" Sophitia said, transferring the coin purse from her belt  
to her right hand and holding it a bit to the front as she continued talking. "Please, don't hurt me,   
okay?" the Greek continued, in mock fright. "I hope you understand me somehow..."  
  
It was obvious that nobody noticed, and Sophitia knew that the ruffian's cloak hid the fact that he  
had a dagger to the ribs of her right side. Still, if this fellow thought that she was going to let go  
of her main means of economic survival on this journey that easily, he was dead wrong.  
  
"Hehe." The thief reached over her left shoulder trying to get at the coin purse. Inadverdtedly,   
the tip of his dagger eased away from Sophitia's side as he tried to get his prize. As soon as   
Sophitia felt the blade brush against her arm, away from her prone ribs, she sprang into action  
and quickly turned around, dropping the money bag as she slipped under the surprised cutpurse's   
arm, safely away from his dagger.  
  
Sophitia pushed against the thief's left shoulder with her palm, at the same time bumping into his   
right hip with her own. Completing the motion, she swept the man's feet from under him and he   
crashed to the ground, grunting with the impact and spewing what were obviously cuss words as he  
tried to rise to his feet again.  
  
Instead he stopped in a half-kneeling position as his eyes saw Sophitia's drawn sword at his throat.   
"Thief!" Sophtia yelled. "Does anyone speak Greek?" she addressed the crowd.   
  
"I... I do," she heard the merchant at whose stall she has paused.  
  
"Good. Now go get whoever's in charge of law and order here," Sophitia quickly said, and the   
merchant nodded, soon yelling at an errand boy, who took off and immediately returned with  
two cloaked soldiers. The merchant pointed at the thief and Sophitia, and said something that   
she didn't understand.  
  
Soon the cutpurse was in the hands of the soldiers and was being hauled off, struggling terribly, as   
Sophitia reached down to retrieve her coin purse and tie it back on her belt  
  
"Pity," Sophitia heard the merchant say to her. "Thieves get their hands cut off around here, you  
know."  
  
"What?" Sophitia said, aghast. She'd only hoped to keep the ruffian from stealing her money and  
that of others with her actions, not get someone harmed. "That's disgusting!" she replied to the  
merchant.  
  
"It's the law," the merchant finished. "Now then," he began, smiling, "What will you be needing from  
my wares, miss?"  
  
Sophitia arched an eyebrow at the merchant's indifference.  
  
"Regular brutes, aren't they?"  
  
Sophitia turned around to see a blonde-haired man, stately in appearance, obviously the   
descendant of some aristocratic family. He had a rapier at his side, and a cool grin on his face.  
"One second they'll try to steal your gold, another they'll cut the hands off a thief."   
  
He sighed, then looked at her, beaming. "You were quite impressive back there, miss. It was my  
first encounter with a woman who knew how to defend herself."  
  
The Greek grinned as she handed over some coins and accepted a package from the merchant.  
"Flatterer. Then again, I would suppose that most ladies of your class have others act in their  
defense too often for them to even consider taking up the sword," she said.  
  
The man grinned. "Perhaps that is the case. I was inclined to act in your defense, but as things   
were, it was obviously not essential."  
  
Then he slapped his forehead, remembering something. "Do forgive me, miss, I have forgotten my  
manners out of my fascination with your capabilities." He bowed slightly, then rose and introduced  
himself.  
  
"I am Raphael Sorel, of France. And you, my lady are?"  
  
Sophitia put her purchases into her saddlebag before she answered. "Sophitia. I am from Greece."  
She closed the saddlebag, preparing to walk away. "Do tell me," she began, "How is it that you  
speak Greek so well?"  
  
"I could ask you a question myself," replied Raphael. "How is it that you took up the sword?" Then   
he paused. "Ah," he continued. perhaps an inn, maybe? The street is not a proper place for   
conversation."  
  
---------------------------------  
  
The inn was busy, as all good ones were. Travellers, mostly those from the desert regions of the   
Ottoman empire bustled about, some clamouring for a room, others taking in too much alcohol,  
some taking a meal before travelling yet again.  
  
Sophitia watched them all, taking occasional sips from her mug of sweet yet dry wine. She was  
kind of tired, she had to admit. It had been about a week's worth of travel from Greece to here,  
with not too many stops for rest. Sophitia sighed--it certainly was difficult trying to locate   
Cassandra. Gods knew where in the world she was now.   
  
Or how she was now.  
  
Sophitia took another swig from the mug. One day of rest should be enough, she mused. One   
day to rest, then travelling once more.  
  
"I was required to learn it. A classical language, my father said. Though I didn't quite see the  
use for it till now," the Raphael said, answering her earlier question, grinning as he sipped from   
his mug. "And it was not as ancient as I thought. Somehow it still serves a purpose these days."  
  
He put his cup down. "So, what's a lady like you doing all the way out here in the Ottomans'   
realm?" Rapahael asked, taking a sip from his mug and stretching back a bit. "I take it you're on   
some quest or something, silly as it may sound, since you carry weapons and seem quite able to   
deal with whatever gets in your way."  
  
Sophitia grinned. "I'd be glad to answer your question, but first I'd like to know what you're doing   
here yourself," she said, placing her mug on the table with both hands gripping it. "Not to be rude,  
but I am a rather private person, if you will," she continued, "and it's not often that one sees   
someone obviously of some breeding travelling on his own, at least as far as my journeying has   
shown me."  
  
Raphael didn't seem miffed, Sophitia noted, as he put his mug down, ran a hand through his hair  
then spoke. "Well, alright then, I'll tell you. Though I am a tad apprehensive, so please, bear with  
me if what I say should seem juvenile," the Frenchman replied.  
  
"Oh, not a problem. I do have a generous amount of patience," Sophitia said. "Please."  
  
"Have you heard of Soul Edge?" the Frenchman began.  
  
"Yes, though isn't it simply a figment of children's imagination? Something like a story that mothers  
use to scare children into doing what they should?" Sophitia asked, hoping that she was masking   
the fact that she actually had encountered it before.  
  
"Well, it would seem that way. But you'd be surprised." Raphael put his mug down on the table and  
gestured with emphasis, saying. "I happened to find a letter in my library talking about the rumor  
of the Evil Seed. I assume you're familiar with this tale?"  
  
"Yes... it is said that the Evil Seed is sort of like Soul Edge's child."  
  
"Correct! And do you know exactly what Soul Edge is?" the Frenchman continued.  
  
"Not really," Sophitia lied.  
  
"It is a blade that drives one insane. Yet, in exchange, it grants whoever wields it the utmost   
power. Though the same could be said of one's position in life," Raphael added with some hint of  
distaste. "Kind of like the way the nobility grows mad with power these days."  
  
Sophitia thought for a moment. "You pursue the blade?" she finally asked.  
  
"Yes."  
  
"Why?"  
  
"For its power," the Frenchman replied.   
  
Sophitia stared at him for a moment, then looked away and smiled a wan smile. No different from  
before, she thought to herself. It's always the same reason. Everyone always wants power, some  
control over anything.  
  
I must admit, Sophitia thought, that sometimes I've had the same thoughts. But isn't the important  
thing why they want such power? No... the end doesn't justify the means. Especially not with Soul  
Edge. But why would Raphael here seek power? Doesn't one of his standing have enough of it?  
  
"You know very well the tale of the Evil Seed and what part Soul Edge played, I assume?" she   
began. "You are aware that some call it the sword of evil?"  
  
Raphael nodded. "Yes. I have, actually," he said. "I happened to meet another traveller, a woman  
of the faraway Ming empire by her appearance. She had much knowledge on the subject, and we  
talked at length about it." Raphael tapped his chin with one finger. "Yes, a woman... and a man   
who also appeared to be from the Ming..."  
  
Then Raphael trailed off, and his eyes looked upwards, obviously lost in thought. After a couple of   
seconds, his brow furrowed and he looked back at her. "I... well, most likely so, but still... Sophitia,  
would you happen to have a sister?"  
  
A sister? Sophitia's eyes widened. Here at last was probably some clue as to where Cassandra was.  
She'd been hoping to find one, just one. Cassandra's trail had begun to grow cold by the time she'd  
managed to reach the desert regions, but now... Now it was quite possible that she would be able to  
trace Cassandra's whereabouts from here on.  
  
"Yes! Yes I do!" Sophitia said, with hardly concealed excitement. "I... Why do you ask?" she asked,  
trying to calm herself down.  
  
"There was this other girl with that man and woman from the Ming empire." Raphael gestured at  
Sophitia's shield, which was lying on the table within arm's reach of the Greek. "She had a shield  
of the same make, and the insignia was pretty similar. Also," the Frenchman continued, gesturing  
towards Sophitia, "you kind of remind me of her."  
  
Yes! It was certain. Cassandra had passed through the area. Now where had she gone? What   
direction? And with who?  
  
"Did she say where she was headed?" Sophitia asked, itching to pursue her sister as soon as  
possible.  
  
"Not really. She more or less just followed the man and woman from the Ming empire."  
  
"Where did they go then?"  
  
Raphael placed a finger on his chin. "As soon as they heard about fighting in the east, they decided  
to go there. Somewhere near these places called Buda and Pest." He scratched the back of his   
head. "Don't know why they would think of going there. The Ottomans are everywhere and-"  
  
"Thank you! Thank you so much!" Sophitia said, quickly gathering her shield and strapping it to her  
back. Placing a few coins on the table, she turned to leave, blurting out, "My apologies! But I must  
go now! I can't lose track of her."  
  
"Not a problem. But hey... about those two from the Ming empire," Raphael began, but Sophitia  
was out of earshot, and seconds later galloped by the entrance to the inn on her horse. Obviously,  
she had not intention of staying any second longer.  
  
The Frenchman shrugged, then turned his attention back to his drink. "Funny thing about those two  
from the Ming empire," Raphael murmured to himself.  
  
"They both spoke Greek."  
  
-------------------------  
  
to be continued...  
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sorry if it takes me some time to update. the school year is just about ending where i'm from, and   
i - am - SWAMPED with all sorts of things to do and report on, and i haven't quite been able to  
make time to write more chapters for viator. plus, my mind is kind of taxed trying to study, so,  
you get the idea.  
  
rest assured, the story has a couple more chapters in the works so far, so i will be updating. just  
not as quick as some people would like though, but i will.  
  
that's 'bout it.  
  
jin long 


	7. Viator Chapter 7

Disclaimer: I do not own Soul Calibur, Soul Edge, Taki, Mitsurugi, Sophitia or Cassandra.   
These all belong to NAMCO. Such a pity--they won't let me have them. Oh well. But this fanfic is   
mine, as are Captain Dmitri and Yvgeny.  
  
Viator: By Your Side  
The Sequel to Requietum:A Journey Home  
  
by jin long  
lycan11@yahoo.com  
  
Chapter 7  
  
The inkeeper took a glance at the table which was only a meter or so away from him, eyeing the group  
that chatted animatedly in a language he could not understand. They were a strange bunch, he thought.  
They didn't look or even smell like those dark people from the desert, he knew.   
  
He'd never seen their sort of people before, although he'd heard the stories people said about the race  
that somebody named Polo or something like that had seen, and they appeared to match this Polo-  
somebody's descriptions of people seen in some strange, far-off land even beyond the desert.  
  
However, though it could be said he was curious, he was actually looking at them with a cautious eye  
more than anything. The inkeeper was no stranger to troublemakers and he even had a certain pride  
at being able to spot them from a distance. And this bunch practically screamed troublemaker at him.  
  
He gave a sideways glance at his hired guards, just to make sure they were where he wanted them to  
be if any trouble broke out. The inkeeper had long learned the value of keeping warriors around his  
establishment.  
  
A hearty laugh from from the group he pegged as troublemakers caused him to return his gaze to their  
table. It came from the man who was apparently the leader of the gang, the one noticeably missing an   
arm. The man laughed one more time, then stood up and went towards him, coins in hand.  
  
The inkeeper gave a slight sigh of relief; there would be no trouble today, he thought, raising his hand  
to accept the coins the one-armed man soon deposited.  
  
"No problem, eh?" he asked, not completely serious with his question, as he thought to himself that   
this person before him would not understand.  
  
He noticed however, that the stranger paid him no heed and was instead gazing at the little figurine on  
the counter. The inkeeper raised his eyebrows, looking at the one-armed man, wondering why he was  
gazing so intently at the little wooden sculpture. Although, the innkeeper thought to himself, it was a very  
nice piece of work indeed.  
  
It looked almost lifelike, the inkeeper thought. Perhaps almost a perfect copy of whoever the original   
was. It was so detailed, right down to the small shield that had the insignia of a ram's horns.   
Perhaps the model was Mediterranean in origin, he thought to himself.  
  
What a pity the woman who had carved it left it. It was such a nice little thing.  
  
In a second, that nice little thing had been snatched up by the one-armed man, examined, and put into  
his satchel.  
  
"Hey!" exclaimed the inkeeper. "Put that back!"  
  
The one-armed man spun around, giving him an angry look. Then he sneered, and the innkeeper soon  
found that his throat was slashed, blood spurting all over his counter. As he choked and fell to his   
knees, he could just make out his hired guards being slashed open by what looked like sickles and  
a claw.  
  
----------------------  
  
"KYATTT!!!"  
  
Taki watched idly as Mitsurugi swung his katana at the soldier's neck and skillfully stopped it just a   
hair's breadth from the skin. The soldier let go of his own sword and raised two hands up in defeat,  
his face betraying that he was obviously impressed with Mitsurugi's abilities. The other soldiers who  
were watching nodded in approval.  
  
The man who was obviously the commander nodded, saying something she didn't understand until  
the priest who had assisted them the first day translated it into Greek and told her that this Captain  
Dmitri was impressed by both their abilities, by hers especially, not expecting a woman to be combat-  
savvy, and hoped that they would help him and his soldiers in a coming battle.  
  
"I see," Taki replied. "Why is he so willing to let us help?"  
  
The priest, Yvgeny, replied. "Perhaps we do not look like we are desperate, but we are most definitely  
so." He looked to Captain Dmitri, who had decided to try his luck against Mitsurugi, then turned back  
to her. "The raids by those from the sands have become more ferocious with the passing of each day.   
In fact, we have recieved news that we are the only place that they have not conquered," Yvgeny said.  
"It was rather sad too, because the messenger himself died."   
  
Taki nodded, lost in thought. "I guess that's why Captain Dmitri was only to eager to shoot arrows into  
me and my companions when we approached your gates. Thank goodness for your intervention."  
Then Taki smiled and looked at him, saying "I thought everyone spoke Greek beyond the sands. Pretty  
bad assumption on my part."  
  
Yvgeny nodded in acknowledgement. "Well, I know Greek - have to know Greek because our holy texts  
are in that language." He sighed. "But Greek speech or no, He appears not to hear us. The invaders  
come and come, and we have no choice but to hole up within these walls and defend ourselves while  
praying that they do not make it past our gates."  
  
"Although they have, perhaps once?" Taki noted, glancing at the gate to the castle, which had obviously  
seen the likes of a battering ram, bearing traces of repairs.  
  
"Once, and it was terrible. They burned what they could and killed who they could. If it weren't for the cool  
heads of Captain Dmitri and Captain Vladimir..."  
  
"Captain Vladimir?" Taki asked.  
  
"He was Captain Dmitri's brother. He died during the last time the invaders managed to break into the  
walls." Yvgeny looked to the sky. "They are like demons, these people from the sands. If the Devil  
himself were behind them and rallying them, it would not come as a surprise to me. They are that   
savage."  
  
Yvgeny paused upon hearing the ringing of bells. He closed his eyes and exhaled before opening them  
again. "You must excuse me, Taki. The people need their daily assurance that He does not forsake us,  
and I must administer this hope to them. Yvgeny sighed, saying, "It is in such times as these that He  
must be testing us and our faith." He waved goodbye to Taki, then proceeded to walk to the small   
church near them both.  
  
The he paused, and glanced over his shoulder at her, saying "You said that you were a slayer of   
demons, did you not?" He smiled sadly. "Though I do not believe you, right now I do hope you are."  
With that, Yvgeny walked on and entered the church.  
  
-----------------------  
  
A slayer of demons...  
  
Taki brushed her thumb along the grain of a piece of wood she held absently in her left hand. Holding  
the carving knife with a practiced grip in her right, she cut into the wood, making a rough outline of what  
she intended to be the final product.  
  
Am I still?   
  
The kunoichi rotated the piece of wood, continuing the outline on the back. Satisfied with the rough   
image, Taki rotated the image so that the front faced her yet again, and began to carve away the   
excess wood.  
  
Or am I turning into one of them? I wanted to give in that time... I wanted to let go of everything, she   
thought to herself. Just give in to that power, that power within Mekki-maru, that power that Soul Edge  
seems to promise, and everything will be all right...  
  
I can't, she told herself. A skilled flick of the carving knife sent more wood shavings to the ground. If I  
did, I'd become what I don't want Toki to become. I'd defeat every purpose, every motive I had running  
away from the clan, taking Mekki-maru, turning traitor. It would all be for nothing if Mekki-maru took  
over one of the Fuuma, even one considered a traitor, Taki thought.  
  
She continued carving, then stopped as she realized whose face she was carving into the wood. Not   
again, Taki groaned. This is precisely why you left the figurine at that inn, that figurine of her, she told  
herself. Your emotions are driving you insane, making you more vulnerable to temptation, to giving  
in to Soul Edge.   
  
Taki put the piece of wood and the carving knife down.  
  
I never should have fallen for her, Taki told herself. It's impossible to be with her.   
  
I should have known that from the start.  
  
But I....  
  
Why did I fall in love with her? With a foreigner of all possible people? Taki breathed in deeply and   
buried her face in her hands. Just as I feared, just as I always feared. I should have stuck to what I   
always did, she thought. I should have just brought her back to Greece, I should not have given in to  
her affections towards me.  
  
But I did.   
  
I foolishly did.  
  
I don't know if I regret it.   
  
Taki closed her eyes, breathing in deeply. This is stupid. I'm being stupid. Captain Dmitri is counting on  
me and 'Shiro-kun to focus and help this place defend itself against invaders who are possibly wielders  
of weapons forged with Soul Edge shards, she thought to herself. This town doesn't need a lovesick   
defender who might suddenly go insane and turn on them.  
  
Just focus for now, she told herself. Stop thinking about it, stop letting your emotions run wild.   
  
You always have, haven't you?  
  
----------------  
  
to be continued...  
  
Hmm, at least I've covered the bases for succeeding chapters. somehow my mind isn't on the chapters  
that i should be writing, but is way ahead of where the fanfic currently is. things are going to pick up  
though after this one.  
  
hmmm...  
  
sorry to any russians irked by my previous incorrect spelling of the priest's name.   
  
and no, i do not think of Taki as bi or as a lez. it's much more complicated than that, believe me.   
  
sticking her into either category is just too damn shallow.  
  
that's 'bout it. and i am not feeling very humorous right now, so no sarcasm or funny bits.  
  
jin long 


	8. Viator Chapter 8

Disclaimer: I do not own Soul Calibur, Soul Edge, Taki, Mitsurugi, Sophitia or Cassandra.   
These all belong to NAMCO. Such a pity--they won't let me have them. Oh well. But this fanfic is   
mine, as are Captain Dmitri and Yvgeny.  
  
Viator: By Your Side  
The Sequel to Requietum:A Journey Home  
  
by jin long  
lycan11@yahoo.com  
  
Chapter 8  
  
Mitsurugi was downright bored.  
  
It was quite an understandable state of mind. Taki had retreated yet again into their room, and for   
someone such as himself who had known her a good deal, it was obvious that she did not want to  
keep company with anybody.   
  
The Greek girl who had joined them at some point, Cassandra, did not want to talk to him, instead   
preferring to keep to her own room. Not that Mitsurugi wanted her company anyway -- he found her   
rather childish.  
  
He would have been crossing swords with the soldiers he'd been trying to impress earlier, but they were  
too busy, apparently with battle plans, from the map he noticed they were looking at, and not without  
Captain Dmitri talking almost endlessly in that language Mitsurugi knew he didn't understand.   
  
And Yvgeny wasn't around either, so fat lot of help he was at the moment, Mitsurugi thought.   
  
He took out his pipe and lit the little tobacco mix it had in its chamber. The swordsman puffed on the   
pipe a couple of times, then blew smoke into the air, watching it waft away in the light of dusk.   
  
Honestly, what he really wanted to be doing right now was talking to Taki about Soul Edge. He wanted  
to find out more about it, wanted his questions concerning the shard he found in the Ming empire   
answered. She was the only one in the immediate vicinity who could give him any information on it.  
  
He wanted to know -- was it really true that Soul Edge was an evil sword? Mitsurugi knew what some   
sages said about evil and power, that evil was but one extreme of power. Power in itself was intrinsically  
neutral, and wether it was evil or not depended entirely on the will of the person who had it. If that was   
the case, then Soul Edge was simply a tool, and it was the desires of the wielder that turned the power  
it had towards either good or evil.  
  
But if that was really the case, why was Taki so apprehensive to use that blade of hers that contained  
but a shard of that great sword?  
  
Mitsurugi had no doubts that Taki was someone he would call a good person, with the best intentions  
for anybody she'd meet. You can't be a demon slayer if you yourself are like your prey, he reasoned.  
The goodness of a demon slayer must balance out the evil of a demon in order to neutralize it. Yin and  
Yang, the swordsman thought. That's how it works.  
  
So if Taki is basically a good person, shouldn't she be able to control that blade of hers? Shouldn't she  
be able to use its power for her intentions?  
  
And shouldn't I be able to control Soul Edge myself in that case?  
  
Then a thought occurred to him, quite briefly, but still poignant -- what if Soul Edge is not a tool, but an  
entity in itself? Swordsmiths usually purify themselves so that their swords will not be the sort to seek  
blood, so that they won't end up like the blades of Muramasa, bloodthirsty. They treat the blades as   
entities in themselves. So what if Soul Edge isn't the blade itself, but an entity that merely employs the   
blade's form in order to be more accessible to those it wishes to consume?  
  
Mitsurugi shook his head, smiling and taking a puff on his pipe.  
  
"Damn it man, you're thinking too hard," he said to himself, blowing smoke into the air yet again.  
  
But the thought still disturbed him.  
  
------------------  
  
Three days definitely took their toll.  
  
Sophitia so wanted to just lie down on a soft bed, bury her face in a soft pillow, and just sleep. It wasn't   
easy trying to get past Ottoman patrols in the daytime or when she usually did, at night. She sighed,   
knowing that avoiding such patrols had drained her of so much energy and had not allowed her much  
sleep. She knew she would have given up a long time ago if it weren't for the fact that her sister could be  
in the middle of whatever crisis appeared to be present in these eastern lands.  
  
The Greek rode past vast tracts of farmland, heading towards the structure she saw in the distance.   
She knew very well that if she could see it from where she presently was, it was definitely bound to be   
huge. And huge structures usually meant a large population, and if that was the case she was certain  
to acquire information along with some more supplies. With more people, she was sure to have a   
higher probability of success.  
  
As she neared the structure, she realized that it was massive indeed, towering over her like some black  
rocky titan of long ago. Sophitia also noticed that the land around this structure -- a castle, she believed   
it was called -- was in ruins. Compared to the farmlands she had previously passed, which were still   
reasonably good, the lands here were blackened, perhaps from fire and she would have not thought   
them fertile if she did not see that some crops still grew.  
  
And it appeared to her that no one dared live outside the massive castle's walls. The hovels all outside  
the castle walls showed evidence of being burned, and she could see no sign of life in them. They had  
been completely abandoned.   
  
What in Hades' name happened here?  
  
---------------  
  
Mitsurugi gave one last puff on his pipe, extinguishing it. Taking it from his mouth, he tapped it against  
the top of the wall, causing the ash to fall out onto the ground below. He paid no further attention to the  
ash, tucking the pipe into his belt as he began to walk towards the stairs down from the ramparts.  
  
Movement from the corner of his eye caught his attention. Turning to the source, he saw two of Captain  
Dmitri's men looking over the ramparts and pointing at something, or someone. One of the soldiers   
appeared to be directing the other, a swordsman, to find Captain Dmitri, judging by his gestures. The  
swordsman soon took off, passing by Mitsurugi on the steps.  
  
Curiousity got the better of Mitsurugi, and he went back to his previous position. As soon as he got there,  
he peered over the wall. He squinted to get a better view, certain that he knew this blonde below him.  
  
"Sophitia?" he called out.  
  
---------------  
  
Sophtia shielded her eyes against the noontime sun to get a better view at whoever was looking at her  
from above. She was sure she heard her name uttered, and she was certain that it had come from   
above her, from somewhere atop these massive walls. She looked harder, and eventually she could   
make out a dark-haired man waving at her. A dark-haired man who looked like he was from the Ming  
Empire but was not.  
  
"Is that you?" she heard, and in Greek no less. Certainly, it could only be one person she knew.  
  
"Mitsurugi?" Sophitia yelled.  
  
"Yes!" was the hearty reply.  
  
"I don't believe it!" Sophitia laughed. "I never thought you would be here!"  
  
"Ha ha! I'm surprised too! Just wait a moment while I see to getting you in here, ne?" she heard him say  
as she saw him wave at her, soon disappearing behind the wall.  
  
----------------  
  
"They are extremely cautious around here, aren't they?" Sophitia said, walking beside Mitsurugi as they  
made their way to the inn, Sophitia's horse in tow. "Can't say I blame them, from what you tell me," she  
added. After doing everything necessary for the horse at the stable, she continued. "And from what I've  
seen. I heard rumors about the presence of Soul Edge in the area."  
  
"So that god of yours has sent you chasing it again, has he?" Mitsurugi asked as they entered the inn   
and sat down for a drink.  
  
"Well, yes and no." Sophitia looked up as the inkeeper's servant put the jug of wine between them and  
gave them two mugs. Afterwards, she poured some for herself and Mitsurugi before continuing. "I'm  
actually looking for my sister."  
  
"I see." Mitsurugi took a swig before continuing. "What's she look like?"  
  
"Younger than me, short blonde hair, kind of like me. Have you seen her?"  
  
"Well, unless you sold the sword and shield I saw on you the first time we met to some antique dealer,  
yes, I think I've seen her around." He watched Sophitia's eyes widen, heard the creak of her chair as she   
rose, and he laughed. "Now don't be in a rush. You're in no condition to run after a runaway sibling,   
what with your obvious lack of sleep. I can tell from the slight presence of eyebags."  
  
Sophitia sighed, returning to her seat. "I guess you're right," she said, taking a sip from her mug. "It's  
just that I worry so much about what might happen to her out here." She looked up at him before   
continuing. "I mean, she's only three years older than me when I first went outside of Greece."   
Without noticing it, she exposed one of the scars on her right arm as she took another drink.  
  
Mitsurugi noticed how jagged the scar was, almost about the length of his thumb by his estimate.   
"There is a lot to worry about around these areas," he said in reply.   
  
"Right." Sophitia sighed. "I was just lucky that I encountered Taki," she smiled, and this did not escape  
the swordsman's attention. "Lucky enough that I met someone who was willing to help me... How is  
she, by the way?" Sophitia asked him, peering as him with her chin on one hand.  
  
Taki looks like she's falling into some sort of depression, Mitsurugi thought.  
  
Taki has wanted to be alone for the past few days. And not in the way she usually wants to be alone, but  
somehow because she's scared of something.  
  
Taki's been having nightmares quite often lately.  
  
Taki is changing. And not in a good way.  
  
"She's... fine! She's okay!" Mitsurugi smiled, hoping Sophitia didn't notice the guilty look that went with  
his grin. If he knew how Sophitia reacted concerning Taki, and he'd seen a lot of that, then it was best  
not to tell her what was actually happening. The Greek would worry herself to death. And besides, Taki  
didn't want Sophitia to find out about Mekki-maru -- that much he knew.  
  
"But enough on Taki. Tell me about your sister," he curtly added, hoping to change the subject.  
  
"Well, she worries me a lot, you know." Sophitia put a hand to her forehead and closed her eyes for a  
couple of seconds. "She's impulsive, hot-headed and generally just prone to get in trouble. Like back  
in Greece, she was always getting into fights."  
  
Mitsurugi arched an eyebrow. "Soo da ka? She sounds like a handful."  
  
"She is. Cassandra certainly is."  
  
"Wait. Did you call her 'Cassandra'?"  
  
"Yes."  
  
Mitsurugi slapped his hand to his forehead. "I thought so!"  
  
Sophitia gave him a puzzled look.  
  
"I should have known the moment I saw your weapons on her. And the blond hair and blue-green eyes."  
Mitsurugi drained his mug. "Sophie, you don't have to worry about your sister. I can assure you that she's  
in good hands, and that she's twice as lucky as you are."  
  
"What do you mean? Do you know exactly where she is right now?"  
  
"Of course! She's as safe as you were when you first met Taki, maybe even doubly so."  
  
"Well don't keep me in suspense! Tell me where she is!" Sophitia said.  
  
"She's with Taki and me!"  
  
-----------------  
  
to be continued...  
.  
.  
.  
.  
.  
.  
.  
  
*'Soo da ka?' -- Is that so?*  
  
yes, we are going to get to point B with one more chapter. i'll make it up later with 2-3  
chapters full of nothing but full-on combat, and no, i do not mean the impending   
battle with the Ottomans.  
  
for those of you who are interested, the four of them are in Transylvania. Yes, Transylvania.  
Which is somewhere near Hungary (oh, NOW that 'Buda' and 'Pest' thing makes sense!   
Oooo...). They're in one of the towns of Transylvania, but I haven't done any research on towns  
in Transylvania (and since we're talking towns way back in the Medieval to Renaissance period, this  
is going to take a lot more reasearch than you think) so the town is unnamed.  
  
yes, Transylvania exists.  
  
jin long 


	9. Viator Chapter 9

Disclaimer: I do not own Soul Calibur, Soul Edge, Taki, Mitsurugi, Sophitia or Cassandra.  
These all belong to NAMCO. Such a pity--they won't let me have them. Oh well. But this fanfic is  
mine, as are Captain Dmitri and Yvgeny.

Viator: By Your Side  
The Sequel to Requietum:A Journey Home

by jin long

Chapter 9

The stench of blood surrounded her, filling her senses with a vomit-inducing miasma. If it weren't for the fact that she'd been shocked near senseless, the contents of her stomach would long have been regurgitated. She breathed hard, almost surprised to hear her own intake of breath, then coughed, falling to her knees as acrid smoke entered her lungs.

They were all around her, lifeless, bodies pale, blood coagulating on their terror-stricken faces. Their eyes... she avoided their eyes, lifeless eyes yet so full of fear. They stared into her very soul, as if asking why she was the only one alive, why she should survive while all of them had died. It wasn't out of fear of those eyes that she refused to gaze into them – no, she felt what might have been called guilt.

She clutched the sheathed blade, a sword that could be called a ninjatou, to her chest. She closed her eyes and the tears fell. It was her father's gift to her. It was the last thing he had made before she watched that... that monster almost cleave him in two. It was the last memory she would ever have of him, his corpse collapsing to the floor of the forge.

"_Hitori de..._" she whispered. Her father was dead. She was the only one...

"_Atashi wa... hitori de_..." Her three brothers were dead. The only one...

"_Hi...hitori de_..." Everyone but her had been massacred. Alone...

"_Kirai yo! Daikirai yo! Naze da_?!" Why did she have to be alone...

"_NAZE DA_?!"

"_NAZE DA_?!!"

Taki's own scream woke her up from the nightmare. Breathing hard, the kunoichi fought furiously to calm down. Another nightmare... Taki breathed in deeply. Why these dreams? Why did she have them? What was going on, what was making her have them? Why... why was she so affected by it, as if the dream had pierced her to the very core of her being?

The kunoichi raised a feeble hand to her face, burying it in her palm. Kami-sama... what's happening to me? What's going on? She sucked in her breath and placed her hand over her mouth, her brow furrowing in worried thought. In that dream.... I was.... I was afraid... afraid.... But why? That's not what happened.

That's not what happened.

Father died in that plague. My brothers died in that plague, from that sickness, she told herself. It was a plague... a plague that wiped Ohmi village from the map. An epidemic, nothing more, nothing more. It's the truth. It's got to be the truth. Yes, that is the truth, she told herself. 'Shiro-kun's family died from the same plague! That's the truth! It's got to be... got to be... No other way about it, nothing else to say... it's past it's done it's gone it's over it's true it's the truth it's the truth it's the truth...

It's done...

It's past...

It's true...

It's the truth...

It's the truth...

It's the TRUTH!

Taki screamed with the utmost frustration into her hands. Her nights as of late had never ceased to be incessantly disquieting. It wasn't only the nightmares that nearly drove her out of her mind. There was growing, persistent feeling that everything she'd known and that her life was in fact one big lie, as if she would one day wake and find that she had been trapped for years in an evil spell.

She'd never thought this way before. Not before she had encountered Soul Edge, and not before she had taken Mekki-maru in her hands and had felt the dark, maddening energy at its core.

Taki rose from the bed and headed for the wash basin placed on a nearby, antiquated dresser, dull from years of use. Moments later, she'd poured water into the basin and was now toweling herself clean. It was, admittedly, a lousy way to take a bath. However, it was the way these foreigners bathed for some reason or another.

She splashed water on her face and leaned over the basin, placing her hands at opposite sides of the container. Water dripped back into the basin from her face as she closed her eyes in thought. Is Mekki-maru doing this to me? Making me see these things? That's it, isn't it? Weakening me, she thought. First Sophitia, and now my memories. She put a hand to her face and wiped the remaining drops from her countenance. Trying to break me down...

It's ridiculous, she told herself.

You know it's ridiculous!

You're the daughter of a farmer. Your mother died when you were four years old. You had three brothers and they were all older than you. The plague came during your eighth year, and people died like flies all around you. They were cremated, as things were usually done, she argued to herself.

Cremated, and that's why you remember smoke that made you gag. The sweet smell of burning flesh... it's the reason you can't seem to eat wild pig. Because it smells like people- like human corpses being burned. Burned to save the living from the plague.

People feared the plague. That's why those faces in my dream were so full of terror, she told herself. The fire, and the smell of blood... cremation and vomit from those still unfortunate to be alive yet utterly ill. That's what I saw, Taki told herself. Just some nightmare of the plague.

And then Toki and Hachibei found you.

They found you and trained you... trained me, Taki told herself. Made me what I am, gave me a new lease on life...

I can't let Mekki-maru do this to me.

I won't let it break me.

I know who I am.

I know who I am!

Taki dried her face off and slipped on her white garment, tying it off at the waist with its matching sash. The more I let it get a hold of me, she said to herself, the more I'll lose this battle against it. She looked over at the ninjatou, almost feeling it resonate eerily. I can't leave you here, can I, she thought. And you know it, don't you, she mentally asked the contained ninjatou.

You know the answer, it seemed to say. There's something about me that you just can't resist. Something so intimate, something that you keep denying to yourself. You know you want what I can give you...

And I know your price, Taki almost replied with her voice.

But you're still not going to let go of me, are you, it seemed to challenge.

Without another word, and as hopelessly irrational as it was to believe that some Fuuma ninja would sieze the blade in her absence, Taki took the ninjatou in her hands, hesitating at first. After what seemed like an eternity later she quickly lashed it to the sash of her garment as she made her way out of the room.

You just can't let go...

------------------

How long are they going to keep talking?

Cassandra peered out from the stairs to the second floor of the inn at her sister and that male foreigner... Mitsurugi, that was his name. They'd been talking animatedly for gods knew how long, and she couldn't even understand the barbarian tongue they were using! Gods, not that she'd give anything to know a boorish tongue, but she would love to understand what in the world they were saying!

And what was Sophitia doing here? What about Pyrrha and Patroklos? Or Rothion? Didn't those three people need her? Wasn't that why she, Cassandra Alexandra, had risked spending nights in a godawful Greek prison for theft?

She gazed at them even more intently. They seemed overly friendly with each other. Too friendly, the young Greek mused. It's as if they've known each other for a long time. Cassandra's eyes widened. Could it be?

Her mind drifted back to the second time that Sophitia had run away from home four years ago.

_"Cassandra," Sophtia had said, eyeing her._

_"Why are you running away again, Sis?" she'd asked._

_"You know why. I told you why." Sophitia gave her one last look, then turned to run away. "I told everyone why, but no one believes me." The older Greek had begun to break into a run, but she caught her hand and pulled Sophitia back._

_"Sis, don't do this!" she'd pleaded. "I let you leave once, I won't again!"_

_Sophitia had looked in the face. _

_"You.... The last time you left... you came back with all those scars... you took so long... Why must you go? Why can't you stay here? Why can't you just settle down, marry the one father wants you to wed instead of going off on a crazy quest?" she'd demanded._

_Sophitia smiled and gently patted her on the head. "You're so concerned about me," the older Greek had whispered. "I never thought... what with all the trouble you used to give me..."_

_Sophitia ruffled her blonde hair slightly before continuing. "Don't you worry about your big_

_sister, Cass. I can take care of myself." Sophitia smoothed out her hair, trying to comfort her as she always did. "I must do this. The trouble may be outside Greece, but it won't be long before it comes here. Please, Cassie, let me go."_

_"This is just about your wanderer, isn't it?!" _

She recalled the surprise on Sophitia's face, the sort of shock that made it all to clear that she'd struck a chord with her sister. So... So Sophitia had fallen for someone during those travels before the second time she'd run away.

But who was it? Sophitia never told her about who this mysterious wanderer was. Not a single word about this mysterious person was said. Not a word was written even, and for Sophitia not to write about someone or something striking was highly inconsistent with her usual behavior as far as Cassandra knew. "If I don't write, I fear I'll forget how to do so," she recalled her sister as saying once.

Whoever this person was, Sophitia must have fallen so hard for him. Mention of that person, even in jest, always brought an odd but utterly content and happy look to her sister's face, Cassandra had observed. Sophitia must have be so in love with that person, that man, the young Greek thought.

Nursing an impossible fantasy, the young Greek thought. Sophie is so out of touch, so in love with someone she'll never see again. Cassandra snorted. Yes, at least that's what I thought at the time. That's what I still think. She grinned. No way in Hades or Hell or whatever would the Gods make a Greek fall in love with a barbarian.

She narrowed her gaze. "Either Eros has gone all cross-eyed or the gods want some amusement at her expense," she mused. "Like they got when Zeus threw Hephaestus from Olympus." Or maybe it was that God of the Holy Roman crazy people.

Right now Sophitia was behaving exactly like that, having that look, in the presence of this barbarian by the name of Mitsurugi. Cassandra couldn't deny that there was a sparkle in Sophitia's eyes that had been near-nonexistent in Greece.

But of all people to fall in love with! Cassandra shook her head in disbelief. A barbarian! And why was she doing this? She knew very well that she was married to a husband that-

Cassandra yelped as a hand patted her roughly on her shoulder.

--------------------------

"What are you doing here?"

Taki removed her hand from the young Greek's shoulder and gave her an odd look which was nontheless very nondescript, betraying nothing. It was actually only too obvious to the kunoichi that Cassandra was spying on someone, but Taki thought it best to have the young Greek actually admit it.

"Nothing!" Cassandra flashed a guilty smile as she raised her hands in front of her defensively. Taki arched an eyebrow in amusement. "Oh really? And I suppose you simply like sitting on flights of stairs while stairing idly off?"

The kunoichi suppressed a wan smile. "It must be Greek thing, isn't it?" she whispered, hoping Cassandra caught the subtle hint of an insult in her tone. "Nothing better to do all the time except rhapsodize about why and how people exist- that's probably why the Ottomans-"

"Am not! My sister's talking to a barbarian and I-!"

Both of their eyes widened in surprise, Cassandra obviously realizing she'd taken Taki's baiting remark, and Taki at the idea that Sophitia would be here. The kunoichi quickly masked her expression of surprise with a narrowed gaze. "Sister? I didn't know you had a sister," Taki said, concealing any indication that she actually did suspect Cassandra was Sophitia's sibling.

"Well... Well yes, but it's not like it was important to mention." Cassandra shrugged.

"What's her name?" Taki said.

"Why does it matter to you?" was the curt reply.

"Why does it matter that you conceal it?" the kunoichi replied, reversing the tables yet again on the young Greek. "Or do you think I'm going to curse your sister or something because I know her name? I guess that indicates how Greeks are, eh? Utterly susperstitious and subject to panic at the thought that their Gods might strike at--"

"It's Sophitia!" Cassandra half-yelled, obviously irritated. "Do you have to go on insulting my people every single time you ask a question?"

I may be depressed, kiddo, but I can play you like a _shakuhachi_, Taki thought to herself, amused. Kami-sama, this young Greek was so slow to not catch on what she was doing to get Cassandra to answer her questions. Taki smiled wanly, remembering the time she'd been on the receiving end of such manipulative interrogation, at Hachibei's mercy for the day's lesson.

"Your sister? What does she look like?" Taki asked, ignoring Cassandra's question.

"You know, you're so obsessed with her it's like--" Cassandra almost countered.

"There goes that Greek nature of yours again. You Greeks always end up--"

The young Greek huffed momentarily before, throwing her hands up in a sign of resignation. Apparently, three perceived insults regarding Greeks was enough for Cassandra. "There," the Greek said, pointing over at a table near the door of the inn, some distance from a window. "That's what she looks like. You happy now?"

Cassandra's words faded from Taki's consciousness as she looked at where the young Greek was pointing. She gasped softly as she saw who was before her. Indeed, at that table, Sophitia sat laughing and drinking with Mitsurugi, flashing a broad smile as she ran her fingers through her blond locks.

She's really here, Taki thought to herself. I thought... I thought I'd never see her again...

She breathed in deeply. I should go to her. I should let her know I'm here, Taki thought. Kami-sama, she's still so beautiful.

Indeed Sophitia was to her eyes. The sunlight seemed to frame the older Greek in an almost angelic aura, making Sophitia look so ephemeral, almost untouchable, so pristine. Sophitia's lue-green eyes sparkled with life, and the sense of being sure of oneself. Almost like the second time I'd seen her, Taki mused. The second time we both went after Soul Edge.

"Is she... always like this?" she softly mused.

"Does it really matter?" Cassandra's voice.

"Answer the question," Taki retorted, in a tone that was almost threatening.

"Not... Not like... Not really." It was delivered in a puzzled tone, the Greek obviously having been surprised by the slight edge in the kunoichi's voice. "I mean.... I don't know why I'm telling you this, but.... this is the happiest I've seen her lately."

"What do you mean by that?" Taki's brow furrowed as she turned away from Sophitia and looked at Cassandra. "Is she being treated badly by someone in Greece? What's been going on?" For the last four years, Taki almost added.

The young Greek seemed taken aback by the expression on her face. "I... Oh, I hardly think that's any of your business!" Cassandra said. "Or mine." The young Greek stood up and made her way down the steps and away from her as fast as she could, apparently. "Anyway, if you're so concerned, why don't you ask her yourself?" was the parting shot as Cassandra disappeared into the inn proper.

I would, Taki retorted mentally.

She had acted the way she did during that verbal exchange not only to get the information she wanted, but to somehow get back at someone who was Greek. Taki hated to admit it to herself, but she blamed a lot of things on Sophitia's father, and the whole lot of the Greeks themselves.

Oh, yes, it was exceedingly senseless to harbor some anger on a whole group of people for the actions of one, but knowing that didn't stop her.

The lousy mood Taki had since waking up obviously wasn't fading at all.

She stood up as well and made her way throught the back outside to the inn's garden, hoping that the calm of the place would somehow enter her as well.

It was a reasonably large space, she mused, and it somehow seemed out of place in the town, with the drab browns and grays of the town's buildings and the town's less than pleasant smell. The sunlight shining into it further enforced that observation she had. Furthermore, the plants were well cared for. Even so, it felt like a little too much, what with all the shrubs and the numerous flowers all around.

True, she would have preferred looking at waves etched in sand, flowing around rocks as if they were mountains and the sand were water, the way a Japanese garden looked. And maybe a bonsai or two, Taki mused. She walked over to a shrub with dark blue flowers and picked one blossom, twirling it idly with her fingers.

It's alright, I suppose, she thought. But I'd rather have a garden like the one Gaki used to tend back home. He crafted it so well, she remembered. He'd arranged the rocks and the sand such that a waterfall appeared to cascade down the mountains with the utmost grace, winding itself around a valley of rocks and finally pooling around a solitary bonsai growing upon a rock.

I'd rather be back home. I haven't been home in such a long time, she thought. And even if I was, I'd probably be dead or enslaved. Taki closed her eyes and breathed deeply before opening them again. The days that used to be - they're all gone.

I hate it, she thought.

And it's all the fault of Soul Edge and this thing, she added, squeezing the handle of Mekki-maru contemplatively.

I'm not asking for much, am I, Kamigami-sama? I just want to go home, I just want to be with my family again and I just want to be loved. Is that too much to ask, she demanded. Why do I have to be the one to guard this evil blade? Why did you have me pursue Soul Edge? Why do I have to do all these things when you can just send Amaterasu no Mikoto and Susano-o from your numbers to take care of things I as a human cannot?

Unconsciously, Taki crushed the dark blue blossom in her hand as she raised her eyes to the heavens.

You won't allow me to love. Love is making me weak, making me susceptible to Mekki-maru's voice, Mekki-maru's temptations. And it becomes even easier for Mekki-maru to do so because I have no hope of ever living with the one I love.

You won't allow me my family. You let them give in to Mekki-maru's false promises and in doing so you've taken them from me. You've turned my family into monsters, insane and malicious monsters. You've allowed the man I call father to be taken by the evil of both Soul Edge and Mekki-maru.

You won't even allow me to go home and live in peace. You know I can't go back because I have to keep my promise to Hachibei. I can't go back until I destroy the evil in Mekki-maru, and that means destroying Soul Edge. You make me run all but run to the ends of the earth and into hell itself to find Soul Edge.

Why me, Kamigami-sama?

Is this some sick joke you gods play on humans because we can't fight what you will?

-------------------

"Thank Hephaestus you're safe!"

"Um... you can let go of me now. Please let go of me now."

Sophitia released Cassandra from a hug that had been triggered by the utmost relief, watching as the younger Greek smoothed out the wrinkles from her clothing. "Gods... I couldn't have hoped for more," Sophitia said. Then all of a sudden her demeanor changed and she swatted the back of Cassandra's head.

"What were you thinking?!" Sophitia demanded. "You had me worried sick! And you even committed theft! What kind of daimon spoke to you to make you do such things?!"

"Ow!" Cassandra winced, and it was obvious to Sophitia that it had been not only from the so-called gesture she'd always administered when she felt Cassandra had done something utterly foolish.

"I could ask you the same thing! You know Patroklos and Pyrrha need their mother!" The younger Greek rubbed the back of her head. "I hate it when you do that!"

"Pi-ra? Patorokorosu?"

Sophitia noticed Mitsurugi's quizzical look. "My children," she answered simply. "You don't need to worry about your nephew and niece, Cass, she said, turning her attention back to her sister. "They're safe in Hephaestus' temple." The Greek ran a hand through her blonde locks. "Honestly, sis, it's as if you don't trust me when it comes to my own children."

Cassandra huffed. "And with good reason! Look at you, running off to find Soul Edge at the slightest indication Hephaestus tells you something." The young Greek laughed. "It's not like you're a maiden anymore! And furthermore, didn't you say you didn't hear anything from the gods anymore? After all, you're no viginal Hestia as far as I can see."

Sophitia smiled. I haven't been like Hestia for longer than you think, sis, she thought to herself. And Sophitia knew wasn't really here for just Soul Edge. She was here for the sake of three people- her sister, her son and her daughter. All three connected in some way to Soul Edge.

No matter what happened, it was as if Soul Edge refused to leave her be.

But perhaps Cassandra didn't need to know that at the moment.

"I came after you," was Sophitia's reply, half-truth as it was. "You had me worried. I thought... Oh gods, what if something had happened to you? There's enough to worry about outside Greece. Bandits, those Ottomans... Don't you ever do what you did again, you hear me, Cass?"

"Well," she heard Cassandra begin, "It couldn't be any worse than what happened to you, could it? You whom the gods love?"

The younger Greek shrugged, smiling wanly. "Everyone loves you, I suppose." She raised her hands in a dismissive gesture. "I mean, heh, you go out of Greece, with barely any training at all, and then you end up returning having fallen for a wanderer who you claim love you in return, and then you just go and faint in the agora then suddenly you have a loving husband just like that, a convenient replacement for that wanderer of yours."

Sophitia balked at the idea.

"You just think you're so loved by the gods, so much so that you're their instrument on earth, don't you? You think everybody needs your help? You think you can save someone?" Cassandra laughed derisively. "Did you save anyone on your last escape from Greece? Did you even destroy Soul Edge? Honestly, what you'll do--"

"Is my business and mine alone," Sophitia cut her off. What an ungrateful sister she had! She'd risked so much going after her, had risked rendering her children motherless, had risked her own life to come after her sister and this was how Cassandra treated her?

Not only that, she'd given up her freedom for her sister's sake a long time ago! She'd given up a person who loved her, she'd given up her body and had almost given up her own soul in the process.

Some respect-- a _little_ respect was not uncalled for!

"This attitude of yours it what causes you so much problems wherever you go! It's why father had you put under that trainer's thumb. You're a self-centered little idiot. I did not have to come after you and track you down all the way from Greece." Sophitia's brow furrowed, irritation from Cassandra's attitude and an immense lack of sleep setting in.

"I've been after you for days! I've hardly slept at all, worrying what might have become of you! And then this is how you treat me? Gods!" Sophitia growled uncharacteristically. "You act like you're all worried about my children, you even have the nerve to berate me for leaving them in Greece, but then you go and run off, knowing full well that I'll come right after you no matter what!"

"It was your decision to come after me," Cassandra retorted. "I didn't make you leave the two, did I?"

"And who is going to take care of you out here, huh? Who do you think is going to take care of you outside of Greece? Did you even consider that for one second?" Sophitia almost yelled.

"You're one to talk! You yourself ran away from home just to go on some silly quest, with barely any training at all, just because you had some hallucination because of those temple fumes and those priests with all their talk! But you didn't have a problem, did you? A few wounds here and there--"

"A few wounds?!" Sophitia cut Cassandra off. "If you'd care to know, Cassandra, if you'd really care to know, I almost died! Right here! Outside of Greece! I'd almost died and I would never have been found. All because I was just as foolish as you are now!"

"I..." she heard Cassandra begin.

"Later!" Sophitia replied, her temper having risen from the turn the conversation had taken. The Greek stomped off towards the innkeeper and asked for a room. The man scratched his head with a doubtful expression, saying something she didn't understand.

"Could you repeat that?" she immediately said.

"Is no room now," the innkeeper said in very fractured Greek obviously gained from idly listening to some travelers who'd stopped by once in a while. "No room now."

"What?!" Sophitia growled, slamming both hands down on the inkeeper's table. "How can there be no room when the Ottomans restrict travel and most of the people here have their own houses in town?" she demanded.

She watched the innkeeper back away slightly at her tone. "People from outside... farmlands... maybe you see... Houses burn... need house at moment. So no room. Am sorry, very so."

"Gods, will it never end?!" Sophitia growled.

She soon felt Mitsurugi tap her gently on the shoulder, and she turned to him. He had a big, kind grin on his face, mischievous and good-hearted at the same time. "I believe I can help you with your little problem," he began.

to be continued...

jin long's notes:

shakuhachi - a japanese wind instrument


End file.
